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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23659159">Sometimes, an Umbrella is Just an Umbrella</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/grunge_ish/pseuds/grunge_ish'>grunge_ish</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Adventure Zone (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angus is Baby Blupjeans, F/F, F/M, Lup (The Adventure Zone) Lives, Lup-centric, M/M, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:22:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,409</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23659159</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/grunge_ish/pseuds/grunge_ish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What else can I say? </p><p>What if Lup lived and made it out of Wave Echo Cave? </p><p>What if Lucretia thought she redacted everything but missed a single child who didn't know any better anyway?</p><p>What if we got to see Lup from the very very beginning?</p><p>What if the Umbrastaff, was just that? A magical umbrella.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Avi/Johann (The Adventure Zone), Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Carey Fangbattle/Killian, Davenport/Merle Highchurch, Hurley/Sloane (The Adventure Zone), Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. And So It Begins (Murder on the Rockport Limited Chapter Seven)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>   It's just after lunchtime in Neverwinter and inside a small restaurant on the edge of town, a young elf woman takes off her apron after a particularly large lunch rush and looks out of the window of her kitchen, noticing what time it is. Her son is going to be coming home today and that thought fills her with joy. The owner of the restaurant sees a small smile slip onto her face and calls to her from the dining room. </p><p>   "Your boy is supposed to be coming home today right?" The old dwarven woman has a voice like leaves crunching under boots in a large and quiet forest. "What's his name? Magnus?"</p><p>   "Elide, you've known Angus and me for 12 years." Lup laughs as she steps out of the kitchen. "He's been in Rockport for a few days, sure, but you can't have forgotten about him that quick." She makes a face at Elide and Elide makes the same face back. "Unless you're so old that your memory has finally decided just to completely abandon you." As Lup walks past the woman who gave her son and her a home and work for 12 loving years, she feels her snap the towel she keeps on her shoulder across her back playfully. It barely stings through Lup's cotton shirt but she makes an overdramatic display anyway.</p><p>   "Get your dramatic butt out of here and go get your boy, he's probably aching to get back home and have some of your cooking. We can hold down the fort now that the lunch rush is over, but you better be back in time for dinner, or I'm sending Andy over here," Elide points to the young orc boy who serves as the busboy and he smiles sheepishly. "to drag you both back, kicking and screaming if he has to." </p><p>   Lup laughs again as she leaves the restaurant. "I'll see you at sundown!" Then she runs off through the town, cherishing the feeling of the wind on her face and the stones disappearing and reappearing under her feet, she feels like she's flying and that fills her with joy beyond measure.</p><p>   She reaches the train station after a few minutes of running and when she gets there, the train isn't there. She cracks her knuckles as she's suddenly filled with worry. Angus doesn't keep a stone of farspeech on him because they can't really afford one, even with the money he gets from his mysteries and because he always worries about someone other than him using the stone to figure out who he really is. Then she sees the Neverwinter militia and she's comforted, she knows a few guys in the militia, and even though it's pretty corrupt, they're working to fix it. So she goes over to them, specifically a good friend of hers, Commander Balan.</p><p>   "Lup! Is Angus on this train? And you didn't go with him?" Balan puts down his sword and shakes Lup's hand in both of his.</p><p>   "He insisted that it should be a stealth mission and that he needed to catch this guy alive." Lup shrugs, adjusting her hair-wrap slightly. "He's going to be 12 in a few days, so I thought that it was a good idea for him to be independent for a while, even though I've been worried about him this whole time." She looks over at the clock and then back to the Drow in front of her.</p><p>   He nods sagely. "He should be here soon, the train is a bit late because some passengers got lost on their way there. Or that's what the conductor/engineer said. No need to worry about him. Angus is a genius kid, he could solve a case blindfolded and with both of his hands tied behind his back."</p><p>   Lup nods, knowing that he's right but also knowing that Angus's detective skills can't protect him against crashed trains and/or homicidal maniacs. "Yeah, I have full confidence in him, don't get me wrong, it's just hard being a single mom with a kid who does so many dangerous things."</p><p>   "Yeah, I get where you're coming from." Balan picks his sword back up and looks slightly angry. "It pisses me off so much that his dad just decided to pack up and leave while he was just a baby. Poor kid doesn't even remember him."</p><p>   Lup is used to this exact speech from Balan every time they talk about Angus, but she can't hold any anger towards Angus's father, she can't really remember him, but for Angus to turn out the way he did, his dad had to have been a good guy. She just can't bring herself to think badly about this guy, whoever he may be, because there's still love there.</p><p>  "Balan, quit it. You've said this exact phrasing over a hundred times. I'm not interested and neither is Angus. We have everything we need." As she speaks, she walks away from him, now annoyed and still worried about Angus. She stares at the gate, pacing slightly and fiddling with her headscarf. Her son is the only family she has and the idea of him getting hurt in anyway makes sparks fly around her fingers. She looks at the clock, the train should be here by now. Angus should be getting off the train any second and walking up to her, smiling the smile he has when he solves a case, completely unharmed and asking her for the new Caleb Cleveland book. Then she sees the train rushing towards the gate like it's going to crash into the station, but before it can do so, a shimmering portal opens up in front of it and swallows the entire train. "Holy shit." She mumbles and no one else seems to notice, all of them too busy talking to each other or looking impatiently at the clock. As she's staring at the gate, almost dumbfounded, transportation magics are hard as fuck to do and a whole train is an incredible feat, a ground of battered and bruised people walk into the station, among them she sees an elf wizard with a ridiculously large hat, a dwarf with things growing in his beard, a human man with a giant axe floating between them, Jess the Beheader, a human wizard who looks like his jaw was broken, and Angus. She rushes over to him almost automatically. "Angus oh my gods! Are you alright?" Lup feels people running up behind her, the militia of course, and Angus produces his detective badge and then hugs her tightly. </p><p>   "It's okay," he motions to the group of battered adults, "they're with me." Lup looks suspiciously at the group, but goes with Angus to hear the story along with the militia, pulling out a health potion that she keeps on her at all times, just in case. "I caught the Rockport slayer with the help of these people. His name was Jenkins and he was a wizard and an employee of the Rockport Limited. He killed the conductor and then cut his hands off in order to get to the safe. He was thrown off the train by accident and we could not recover his body, but he is dead and the mystery is solved." The militia leader nods and then thanks Angus for his work, which makes Angus smile and makes Lup blood run molten as she sees that her boy is missing two teeth. As soon as the militia leave, she hands the potion to Angus and watches as he drinks it, then she cracks her knuckles.</p><p>   "What the fuck happened out there kiddo? Why are your teeth missing? Did that Jerkins guy do this? I'll bring him back just to kill him again." Angus recoginzes when his mother is about to burn some shit down, and she looks like she could level Neverwinter with her anger right now.</p><p>   "Mom, mom, no. Jenkins didn't do this, this happened with Mr. Taako pushed me off the train to save my life!" He motions to the elf wizard, the dwarf, and the floating human. "It's really not that big of a deal. I could've died." He says this all matter-of-factly and Lup takes a deep calming breath before she loses her shit in the middle of a train station. </p><p>   "Which one is Taako?"</p><p>   "The wizard. Please don't be mean to him! They were very nice and helped me a lot with the case." Angus starts walking over to them and Lup follows at a small distance, murder written all over her face. They don't really see her as Angus speaks to them. "I gotta say you guys, I'm really proud of you. This is, well, this is one of the toughest mysteries that I've ever solved by myself."</p><p>   The human stops him in the middle of speaking and says, "Well, well, hold on, I think we solved this one together."</p><p>   "Oh oh, yeah." Angus looks kind of defeated. "It was a joint effort-"</p><p>   This time the dwarf stops him. "Well, I think we solved it on our own, without you."</p><p>   "Okay, that seems mean, I'm trying to do like a heartfelt goodbye speech." He fumbles around in his pockets for a second before producing a rusted compass. "I wanted to give you guys this. I was going to bring it to the station because it would be dangerous in the wrong hands, but I'm sure you guys can take care of it and hopefully get a lot of use out of it." The dwarf immediately takes it from him. The wizard then fumbles in his bag and produces three forks from what was going to be Elide's birthday silverware set.</p><p>   "I have something for you too. I managed to get one piece of the treasure out of the crypt." Angus lights up and Lup begins to smile as well, maybe these guys aren't total assholes.</p><p>   "You got my grandpa's silverwave? You got the whole set?"</p><p>   "Sadly I was only able to perserve a few pieces of it," and as he says this, he doesn't really look sad about it and Lup mentally retracts her earlier thought. "but hey, something is better than nothing I guess."</p><p>   "Thanks." Angus takes the forks sadly, "You got me really excited thinking that you got the whole set." Lup comes up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder."Although, I think if I show these to my grandpa, he'll just get angry with me." </p><p>   "You got really committed to your cover huh Angus?" The boys look at her in shock, Taako most of all, because looking at him, well it's almost like looking in a mirror. "I guess that's understandable, given the circumstances."</p><p>   The human looks her up and down. "And you are?"</p><p>   Lup flashes him a dagger-like smile. "I'm Angus's mom. Lup Bluejeans. You must be Magnus." She looks at the dwarf. "Merle." And then she looks at the wizard and swallows her shock to look menacing. "And you must be Taako. The motherfucker who pushed my son off of a godsdamned train."</p><p>   Merle holds his hand up and looks at her with wide eyes. "I didn't know Barry and a wife and child!" She looks down at him with disdain.</p><p>   "Who the fuck is Barry? He sounds like a giant fucking nerd."</p><p>   Taako chimes in. "So you aren't the wife of Barry Bluejeans?"</p><p>   Lup shakes her head. "Um no, I'm not married and I certainly wouldn't marry a man named Barry. That's just a bad name." Taako nods, agreeing with her. "Oh, and also." She turns and fucking decks Taako. </p><p>    "Mom! You promised you would hurt them!" Angus puts his head in his hands. "I'm sorry. She can be a bit protective. We're the only family that each other have."</p><p>    She wipes her hand off and shrugs. "That's for making my son lose two of his fucking teeth. And for just being assholes to him in general. He's 11 you guys, come on, act like adults." The boys all look sheepish in front of her and Taako mumbles an apology. "Apology accepted. Now, I think Angus was still speaking before I interrupted him."</p><p>    "Oh yeah, if you guys ever run into any mysteries that you can solve, just drop me a line and I'll be there in a flash." He hands them his business cards, which say 'Angus Bluejeans, Boy Detective' on them.</p><p>    Lup leans over to them and whispers. "There's no way you can contact him like that, but he thinks they're enchanted, because one of out warlock friends put a spell on it, but it just makes them impervious to weather damage. Don't tell him." Lup grabs Angus's hand and walks away with him. They start walking back to the inn and this time Lup isn't rushing, so she can start speaking to people and waving to friends. They walk silently and happily.</p><p>   "Hey mom."</p><p>   "Yeah Angs?"</p><p>   "I don't think that I'm going to give these three forks to Elide for her birthday. We can just figure out something else out."</p><p>   Lup laughs. "Yeah, we'll just make her breakfast in bed and you can work in the restaurant for the whole day."</p><p>   Angus looks at her with a fully serious face. "Now lets not get too crazy."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 1 (Lunar Interlude: Carnival Chaos)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Mid-Summer Festival brings about the closing of all shops and restaurants, but more than that, it brings about some very interesting questions, questions that Angus knows he needs to investigate.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>   Lup was up before the sun was, puttering around the room she shared with Angus, her bright red headscarf was missing. Not that she was going to be wearing it today, but she preferred to have it on hand, seeing as it was one of her favorites. Today was the Mid-Summer festival in Neverwinter, which meant that the restaurant that she worked in was closed, but she was still going to be cooking today. Elide had lived in this town for her entire life, and so she was a fixture in the festivities, which mostly meant that she baked cookies and cakes and muffins and treats for anyone who came near her. She had dragged Lup into it a few years ago, when Angus was only 4 or 5, promising that the other villagers would be nice to him. And they were, and as Elide promised, Lup enjoyed handing out to goodies and listening to the polite conversation that people had with Elide. Neverwinter was a very kind and welcoming town, despite it's size. and on the outskirts, everyone knew everyone. Which Lup found daunting at first, constantly being around the same exact people, but Angus took to it like a dragon to gold, so she was happy for him. </p><p>   "Momma? Why are you up so early?" Angus had gotten up and gotten dressed in new clothes while she was busy lost in thought.</p><p>   Lup ran a had through her curly hair, one of the few things that Angus had inherited from her, and turned to him. "Sorry to wake you up kiddo. I couldn't sleep." He noticed that she was holding three different scarves, one a spring green, the next a soft blue, and the third a deep purple. She was dressed as well, a grey cotton shirt replacing her white one from yesterday, and washed-out bluejeans matched with scuffed brown boots.</p><p>   "Do you want me to help you do your hair-wrap today? Or are you not gonna wear one?" When they first started living in Neverwinter and he was a baby, she had cut up the red robe that she had been wearing to make a holding sling for him to sleep in while she worked. They had both been very distrustful of people at first, and if Elide's stories were to be believed, he cried when he was held by anyone but her. After he started walking, she had used the sling as a headscarf for the first time, and ever since grown to love it. She rarely left the house without one. The last time he remembered her doing so was when Commander Balan had invited her to a ball.</p><p>   "Sure Angs. Got a pattern in mind or do you just wanna go for it?" She sat down on the edge of her bed and turned her back to him, barely prepping the scarves so that he could mess with them, until he decided that it looked good enough. They did this pretty often, Angus liked to have the scarves to focus on and Lup liked to spend the time with him.</p><p>   "I think I'm just gonna go for it this time." With that, he began twisting the scarves into a braid and then undid it and then tried something new, decided he didn't like it, and did something else. "I might be doing this for a little bit, can you tell me a story about your childhood?" They had gone through so much together, and still, there was so much he didn't know about his mom's achingly long past.</p><p>   Lup chuckled at the wall in front of her. "Another one? If I didn't know better, I'd think that I was a part of a new mystery." She folds her hands in her lap, thinks for a moment, and then begins telling the story. "Here's one of my favorites, I was traveling with a group of bards. I was the youngest of the group, surprising I know, and I was just learning magic and how to control it. One of the bards was old and rude but still played the lute beautifully, he was tuning his lute while I was making dinner for the rest of the group one night and he asked me if I wanted to try playing it. I was shocked, usually he was mean to me, insulting my cooking and telling me that I was a waste of space on their caravan, but he seemed to be in an unusually good mood, so I took advantage of that. He handed me the lute, moved my hands into the right positions and taught me a few chords, then told me to try it on my own. I was awful. It was way too big for my hands at the time as I clumsily tried to recreate the chord he had taught me. After about ten minutes of trying, I finally made the chord sound somewhat okay. I was so excited and he told me that I had done a great job. Then I remembered the food I was making, and by some miracle, it was perfect. I started plating at and he left the caravan. They were done traveling a few days later, but he was never rude to me again." She finished her story at the same time that Angus finished messing with her headscarves.</p><p>   "Can you still play the lute?" Angus asked as she turned around. He was a little bit in awe of this story. He wished to have adventures like she had, but he knew that she was almost always scared, tired, and hungry those days.</p><p>   "Absolutely not. That was near the beginning of my journey to get to you." She pinched his cheeks and he made a face at her. That's what she called her past when anyone asked, her journey to get to him. She moved her head around to feel the hair-wrap that Angus had devised. "Feels perfectly balanced. Thanks kiddo." Angus beamed at her praise and they went downstairs to being preparations for the festival.</p><p>   "Andy, aren't you going to go home for Mid-Summer?" Elide's voice floated to where Lup and Angus walked into the bottom floor of the restaurant.</p><p>   "Not this year Miss Elide. They don't want me back. They didn't return my letter." Andy's sad voice was matched with a sad face as Lup walked over to put her hand on his shoulder.</p><p>   "I'll just make enough goodies for you too hand out too." Lup squeezed the young half-orc's shoulder and went to the kitchen to begin cooking, Elide joined her, and Angus went to sit with Andy.</p><p>    "Where are you from Andy? I can't seem to remember." Angus was asking because he wanted to get the spelling of Andy's town right, so he could write a very strongly worded letter to the family that exiled him.</p><p>    Andy just sort of looked at him. "I actually can't seem to remember either, I've haven't been back there in a very long time. Not since I started working here." Andy pulled on a loc of his hair. "I know that I said I've been going back, but I've really just been visiting my cousin Killan. She and her girlfriend leave the work festival they have to visit me." Angus nods in support, but runs through the timeline in his mind, it doesn't match up. Andy had only come to Neverwinter 5 years ago, there's no way that he already forgot the name of his hometown. Lup, who hadn't been in her hometown for decades still remembered the name. He shakes the suspicion from his mind, grilling Andy won't work, especially when he's so sad like this.</p><p>   "I understand. My mom and Miss Elide tend to have a great time passing out the goodies though, you'll have a good time too. I'm sure of it! And if you don't, you can always come and read with me. I have an extra Caleb Cleveland book that you can borrow!"</p><p>   "Thanks Angus. I might take you up on that offer." Angus smiled, but he could tell from Andy's voice that he would not take him up on his offer.</p><p>   Lup tied the apron around her waist as she began prepping everything, pulling out cookie trays, cookie cutters, cake pans, icing, and everything else she would need. Elide walked into the kitchen as she began putting the cookie dough onto the pans and began making the cake dough.</p><p>   "Did Angus do your head covering today?" Elide asked as she began to pull out candies from a drawer in the back of the kitchen. "It looks very nice. I'm surprised that the red 'scarf' didn't make an appearance." Lup smiled over at the dwarf woman as she placed the three cookie trays into the stone oven.</p><p>   "I couldn't find it this morning unfortunately. I looked everywhere too. I suspect the Mid-Summer faeries took it." That gained a laugh from Elide and Lup smiled. "And yes, Angus did my hair-wrap today. He wanted a story about my childhood and he knows that's the best way to get it."</p><p>   Elide pulled out ribbon decorated baskets and began to arrange the candies in them. "It always surprises me how close you two are. You know, some of the village gossipers think that it's weird for you two to be so close. I know better though, they're just jealous that their sons don't want to spend as much time with them."</p><p>   Lup rolled her eyes. "You know I couldn't care less what those old bags think. As long as they treat all of us with respect, they're harmless, plus," Lup lit her hand on fire as she pulled the cookies from the oven. "who would get on my bad side when I can do this?" Elide chuckled as she was handed the cookies to arrange in the basket.</p><p>  "No one in their right minds. How was Angus's train trip?"</p><p>  "It wasn't bad, there were some complications with the train and this group of guys who gave him a little bit of trouble, but I took care of it."</p><p>  "Oh?"</p><p>  "Yep. I punch in the face tends to make people be a lot nicer." Lup thought about the wizard she punched, and remembered how familiar he looked, how it felt like looking in a mirror when she looked at him. Lup shrugged it off as she put the three cakes in the stone oven and turned to Elide. "Are we doing anything special or just the usual?"</p><p>   Elide looked at the baskets and then at the cakes rising in the oven. "I think we'll go for the usual. Lord Artemis Sterling isn't going to be visiting or anything, so why go all out?" Lup laughed.</p><p>   "I fear the day when I have to prep for a Mid-Summer Festival that includes Lord Artemis Sterling." The cakes are almost done by the time Angus pokes his head in the kitchen.</p><p>   "Are you almost done? It smells amazing in here." His slightly pointed ears leaned back as he smelled the cakes baking and the cookies in the baskets.</p><p>   Elide pushed him out of the kitchen. "Not yet boy, the cakes still have to bake and the last time you tried to cook, you almost burned my restaurant down."</p><p>   Angus allows himself to be pushed out of the kitchen and fake pouts. "I said I was sorry!"</p><p>   Lup pulls the now done cakes out of the stone oven and calls out to Angus. "Sorry kiddo! Kitchen rules!."</p><p>   Once the cakes were cut up into flower shapes, tree shapes, and star shapes and then decorated, everyone was ready to go out for the Mid-Summer festival. It was like any other festival, full of sharing food, sharing stories, dancing, gifts, and bonding. Lup, Elide, and Andy handed out goodies to anyone who came by, the flower cakes were the most popular, with the cookies coming in a close second. Angus spent most of the day talking to the older citizens, listening to their stories, and telling them about the mysteries he solved. He found a missing cat, and then a missing pair of eyeglasses. By the end, everyone was tired, but still having a great time and it was time for the dance. Lup kicked off her boots, as did Elide. Angus and Andy found themselves on the outside of the dancing circle. Lup danced with so many people that her head started to spin, she danced with Balan most of all. As she decided to take a break, she saw Angus and Andy sitting on a bench together, both reading, Angus reading much faster than Andy.</p><p>   "You two didn't want to dance?" Lup plopped down on the dusty ground in front of the boys, wiping the sweat off of her forehead and smiling.</p><p>   "Not this time. Maybe next year!" Angus said that every year, the truth was that he much preferred just watching the others dance, it was so much more interesting. Lup never made him dance if he didn't want to, but she always encouraged him too.</p><p>   "I really just wasn't in the mood." Andy looked like he would rather be anywhere else at this exact moment. Lup nodded at him and took a moment to catch her breath before speaking again.</p><p>   "Well, if you want to go home, I can always cover for you." Andy's eyes lit up at her offer and stood up.</p><p>   "Thank you Miss Lup." She waved him away.</p><p>   "No need to thank me or call me miss. Just go home and don't worry to much about what the family you came from thinks of you. You've got another family that cares about you way more." She winked and Andy smiled at her as he turned to leave. "Sorry for getting rid of your people watching or reading buddy Angs." Angus smiled at her.</p><p>   "It's not a big deal. You should go back and dance though. Miss Elide looks kind of lonely out there." Angus pointed to where Elide was dancing by herself and Lup smiled at him and kissed him softly on the forehead.</p><p>   "Good eye kiddo. I'll see you when it's time to go home."</p><p>   "Have fun dancing!" As Lup went back into the circle of dance, Angus swore he could see a red robed figure standing just outside of his field of vision, watching her dance with Elide. He looked at it for a little bit and it seemed to notice him, it nodded it's head at him and then disappeared. Angus looked at where it had been for a little longer, wondering what it could've been. He went back to his book and people watching, but the thought never left the back of his mind.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>When I was originally planning all of this out, I totally forgot that Magic Brian was a Drow, so, y'all know that I'm about to make you guys feel shit about him.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 2 (Petals to the Metal Chapter 1)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This isn't as interesting as Merle dirty-talking plants, but I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Lup was up much later the day after the Mid-Summer festival, her feet throbbed from the dancing and so did her head, but she was awake, so she might as well get up and get dressed. As she did so, she noticed that Angus's bed was empty, but made. Meaning that he had already gotten up, gotten dressed, and went to get breakfast. She rolled her eyes, tying her hair up in a far less elaborate hair-wrap than yesterday after getting fully ready and started down the stairs, as she did, she heard voices. It was too early for restaurant customers, so it had to be someone with a mystery for Angus to solve.</p>
<p>   "I can't remember his name or his face," a female voice sobbed, "but I can tell you that he was a wizard and a drow. We were set to be married next month. Please you have to find him, I can't live like this." As Lup stepped into the dining area, she saw a tiefling with her head in her hands and she was sobbing in front of Angus. He put a hand on her shoulder and nodded.</p>
<p>   "I'll find your fiance, I promise ma'am." The tiefling woman wiped her tears away and nodded with a face as serious as death. </p>
<p>   "If you need to find me, my name is Deidre, I'm the only tiefling that works for Lord Artemis, so, just tell them my name and they'll get me." Angus nodded and they shook hands.</p>
<p>   "Before you leave ma'am, what did your fiance do for a living?" The woman paused and she looked confused.</p>
<p>   "He never spoke about it, just went on long trips and came back with bags of money. He said it was a bureau that wanted to make the world more safe. I never pushed it, maybe I should've." As Deidre left, she looked confused and panicked, but that soon melted into an aura of sophistication and that same serious expression as before.</p>
<p>   "Your new case sounds like a weird one kiddo. How did she find you?" Angus shrugged, uncomfortable with the familiarity he saw in Deidre's expression. It was almost the exact same face that his mother made when she tried to recall information about his father.</p>
<p>   "Word gets around, plus, I'm the world's best detective. Remember mom? You even got me this mug for Candlenights last year!" He points at the mug of orange juice in front of him. It indeed says 'World's #1 Detective'.</p>
<p>   "Oh yeah. How could I forget?" Lup grabbed her apron off of a hook near the kitchen and tied it around her waist as she mentally prepared herself for the day. "So, how do you think you're gonna crack this one?"</p>
<p>    Angus bit his fingernail as he thought. "Well, usually I would go to their friends and family, but she's an orphan and I have a hunch that his family wouldn't be much help right now. I might go around the town anyway, asking around. The last time she said she saw him was when he was about to leave for a work trip to a town she can't remember, but she remembers that there was an abandoned cave system near by that he said was important. So, I'll probably look for cave systems that are abandoned and near towns that don't have a lot of people in them." He started back upstairs, but then stopped. "Mom, if anyone comes by looking for me, tell them I'll be down in a little bit, okay?"</p>
<p>   Lup gave him a thumbs up from where she was cleaning utensils in the kitchen. "You got it kiddo!" After she finished cleaning the utensils, she lit the fire in the stone stove, prepped all the ingredients that she'd need for the day and then waited for the small but steady breakfast crowd. The first person that walked in was not a regular, nor was it Andy, coming back from a random chore. It was an orc woman who looked a little bit like Andy, but only in the build. "Oh, hello. How can I help you? Our menu is right over there," Lup pointed to a board with three sheets of parchment nailed to it, "or you can ask me to surprise you." The orc woman looked between her and the board.</p>
<p>   "Actually, I'm looking for my cousin, Andrew. My girlfriend and I got caught up at our work and couldn't take Mid-Summer off." Lup narrowed her eyes at the woman, but decided to help her out.</p>
<p>   "Andy sleeps in the back. I'll go get him for you." She walked the small pace to the back to knock on Andy's door, he opened the door on the first knock, shaking sleep out of his head and yawning still. "Hey, your cousin is here to see you." Andy looked past her to the window into the kitchen.</p>
<p>   "Okay. I'll talk to her. Is there anything I need to pick up from town?" They walked back to the kitchen together and Lup looked around.</p>
<p>   "Probably more coals. We always need more coals. And eggs. Never forget eggs." Andy nodded with a small smile. When he turned to the window, his smile widened.</p>
<p>   "Killian!!" He launched himself out of the window and hugged his cousin, practically glowing with pride. "Oh man, I thought something had happened to you and Carey. Killian, this is my coworker Lup, Lup this is my cousin Killian." Lup politely shook Killian's hand, she seemed pretty cool. She was wearing armor and had a giant crossbow strapped to her back. "Angus should be around here somewhere. Miss Elide is sick today, but Angus seemed fine last night."</p>
<p>   Lup cut in. "Angus is my son, he's a detective and he's working on a new case right now." She mentioned to Killian. Killian nodded and turned slightly to Andy.</p>
<p>   "I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay. I hope the lonely Mid-Summer wasn't too hard on you." Andy nodded.</p>
<p>   "You didn't need to worry about me. Lup and Miss Elide included me in their festivities and then Angus and I read a few books. I wasn't alone." Killian smiled over at Lup and Lup simply shrugged going back to her work. Andy and Killian talked for a few more minutes, deciding to go run errands together and when Andy came back, he had a handful of coals, a basket of eggs, and a giant smile on his face.</p>
<p>   "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what does your cousin do? Her crossbow is pretty sick." Andy nodded as he put away the coals and eggs.</p>
<p>   "She says she works at a bureau that helps make the world safe, but she doesn't answer any of my other questions. My theory is that she's an assassin, who kills real high profile victims, like Governor Kalen of Raven's Roost. So that's why she can't talk about it. Or maybe she's like something embarrasing, like an accountant. So that's why she wears the crossbow, to like, make up for it." Lup remembered his wording from somewhere else and filed it away to give to Angus. Who, almost as thought thinking about him had summoned him, ran down the stairs. </p>
<p>   "Woah woah, slow down speed racer. Where are you running off to?" Angus looked at her with the 'I had a LEAD' gleam in his eyes.</p>
<p>   "I'm going to ask Commander Balan about Miss Deidre's fiance. He's one of the only Drows that live in town and he has a high up position, so, it makes sense that he would know something, anything about this guy!" Angus then left before either Lup or Andy could say something. Lup just shrugged and went back to her work.</p>
<p>    Angus made it to the militia headquarters within ten minutes, which is a record, he knocked on the door six times before it opened, and the guy that opened it was Commander Balan, thankfully. "Hello sir! I have a few questions I'd like to ask you about a missing person in Neverwinter." Angus pulled out his detective notebook and held it up, ready to ask questions.</p>
<p>    "Okay kid. Shoot."</p>
<p>    "Do you know how many Drow live in Neverwinter?"</p>
<p>    "Three. Myself, my younger sister, and a wizard named something that starts with a B, I think."</p>
<p>    "Where did this B-something live?"</p>
<p>    "In the financial district. Why do you need to know all this kid?"</p>
<p>    "He's the missing person, sir. I'm just trying to get an idea about who he was as a person."</p>
<p>    "I think he had a fiance. Why don't you talk to her." Angus adjusted his glasses as he looked at Commander Balan.</p>
<p>    "Who do you think asked me to find him? Thank you for your time sir. I hope you have a good day!" With that, Angus turned around and ran off towards the financial district. He had about as much luck there as he did with Commander Balan, which is to say not much at all. He figured out that the guy liked spiders, had an odd accent, was a bit eccentric, and very friendly. He was no closer to solving this mystery than he was when he left. He thought that maybe someone, anyone would have information about what his job was, which would help him narrow down his search of abandoned mines, but they all said the same thing: that he rarely talked about it. Angus was ready to tear his hair out when he reached the now empty restuarant, he had missed the lunch rush, which means that his mom would have a lunch cooked and waiting for him. They rarely ate without each other. He walked into the doors and there she was, setting out his plate as she sat down.</p>
<p>    "Well well, look at what the cat dragged in." She motioned to the plate that she had sat out. "Sit down, tell me what you learned." Lup began eating the 30 garlic clove chicken that will be  today's dinner special. 30 garlic cloves sounds like a lot, but it's cooked very very slowly, so most of the taste is gone.</p>
<p>    "So no one can seem to remember his name or his face, but he lived in the financial district, had an odd accent, was very friendly, and was very partial to spiders. No one knows what he did, just that he worked for a bureau and that he claimed that they wanted to make the world safer. Angus ate bites of the chicken between his words and then looked at his mom quizzically. "Is this your 30 garlic clove chicken?" She laughed and took a drink from the water glass in front of her.</p>
<p>    "Yes it is. So you learned all that from Commander GrumpyPants?" Angus rolled his eyes but then nodded. "Oh! Before you say anything else, Andy described the business that his cousin Killian works for the exact same way as people are describing this guy's bureau or whatever. Maybe they're connected." She offered, taking the last bite of her chicken.</p>
<p>     Angus looked contemplative for a little bit. "Maybe they are."</p>
<p>     Lup stood up and washed her hands with a tiny hose they have in the kitchen and then looked at her son. "I know that look. Are you going to grab your conspiracy board?" Angus was still lost in thought as he answered.</p>
<p>      "Yeah. I think I am. This case is definitely a weird one. You were right about that momma." </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 3 (Petals to the Metal Chapter Two)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Angus is still looking for the missing Drow Wizard but other people have gone missing under mysterious circumstances too.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>   Angus sat in a corner of the kitchen, muttering to himself as his mother greeted customers, took orders, and cooked through the dinner rush. It was bigger than usual, which she expected, Mid-Summer made people less prepared to cook because all of their prep time went into the festival, so it was a good thing that the chicken, which was the special, had been cooking since around noon and needed very little prep after it was ordered. As the crowd thinned and finally disappeared, Lup turned to her son and sat down in front of him.</p><p>   "Are you gonna take a break for dinner by your own merit, or do you need to talk about what you're working on before you can calm down enough to eat?" Angus put his book down on the ground in between them and sighed heavily.</p><p>   "I have an idea, but Wave Echo Cave isn't close to anywhere, except Hogsbottom, but it's abandoned and there have been a ton of deaths around there. So it would make sense for this wizard who works for the hidden helpful organization to go there, but something about this is bugging me. I feel like there should be more to this." Lup shuddered at the words Wave Echo Cave, that's where she had woken up, half-dead, with no idea where she was from or who she was, just that she had a baby somewhere and he needed her.</p><p>   "How do you mean?" Lup knew with vague certainty which questions Angus needed to be asked.</p><p>   "It's just, wasn't Wave Echo Cave a major mining operation? Shouldn't there be a town, even if it's abandoned, near by?"</p><p>    "You're right, it is weird that there's no town around Wave Echo Cave. Something must've happened to it, because I remember waking up around a bunch of people, they had to live somewhere." Angus nodded with his eyebrows knotted together in frustration. "Maybe we can take a trip to Wave Echo Cave? I'll talk to Elide about it at the very least."</p><p>    "Mom, no. I know what happened to you there, I wouldn't make you go back. I can go alone-" Just then, the bell over the door rang, signalling that a customer came in. Lup stood up to face them, ready to tell them that the restaurant was closed, but their faces stopped her. It was a family of halflings, all of them with bright red hair, most of them looked like they had been crying.</p><p>    "Excuse me ma'am, we're real sorry to bother you, but we were told that Angus Bluejeans, Boy Detective lives here. Is that true?" The tallest and oldest looking of the halflings smiled softly at her, taking his hat off to be polite.</p><p>    "Oh yes of course. Here, I can get him for you." As she said that, Angus opened the door to the kitchen, his book still on the kitchen floor and his stressed out expression no where to be seen.</p><p>    "I am said detective. How can I help you?" Angus motioned to a large table and the sizable family sat down in front of him.</p><p>    "As we said, we're real sorry to bother you, but it's our daughter. Our oldest daughter, that is." The patriarch of the family said, motioning slightly to the young girl sitting next to him. "Eliza felt it first, she was going to head out to the store, but Freddy stopped her. We had sent someone into town just yesterday. But none of us can remember where we sent her or her name or even what she looked like. We had all just plum forgot. Which made little Sally over here begin crying, bless her heart, her big sister was her favorite family member, but not even she can remember the smallest detail about her." His face was turning a bit red and one of his sons put a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>     "What pop is trying to say, it's like our sister has just vanished completely. All was did was send her on an errand to an inn with some of our famous ale and then she stopped existing, it feels like. We can't even find pictures of her around the house." Angus nodded, writing most of this down.</p><p>     "I'm currently working on another case, but I think that these two are connected." Two of the sons and the mother of the family broke into smiles, and it looked like that hadn't smiled in a very long time. "I just have one question I need you to answer."</p><p>     "What do you need dearie?" The mother, probably Eliza, asked. "We can answer just about anythin' to help you out."</p><p>     "Where are all of you from?"</p><p>     "We're from Hogsbottom. Couldn't ya' tell?" The shortest, and most likely youngest, of the sons asked.</p><p>     "Got it. I'll start working immediately." Angus stuck his hand out to shake and each family member took turns shaking it.</p><p>     The mother, Eliza, walked over to Lup before she left and placed a small jug and a covered up pie tin on the order desk. "Bless you and your sweet son. Y'all've helped us more than you could ever know. So, I made this for y'all. Its a jug of our famous Redcheek ale, and sweet potato pie."</p><p>      "I can't take this from you, not after what you went through." Lup started to push the pie tin and jug back to the halfling woman in front of her, but Eliza was having none of it.</p><p>      "You can and you will. These are a thank you for helping us out. And when you and your sweet son bring my little girl home, there will be a lot more where this came from." Eliza pushed both of the things into Lup's hands and then walked away after her family. Lup held the gifts dumbly in her hands, she could barely believe that any of that just happened. She turned to Angus with an incredulous look and he just shrugged at her. </p><p>       "Well, at least I have something to bribe Elide with now." Angus laughed slightly as Lup stepped into the kitchen to make them both dinner. She didn't do anything fancy, potato stew, which she made almost everyday for the bland types in the restaurant, and some bread was good enough. </p><p>       "I think this might be my strangest mystery yet. First the wizard and now some random girl from a tiny village? Unless the girl got near to Wave Echo Cave, no part of this makes sense." He began biting his fingernails again, out of stress and worry. "Why did it have to be Wave Echo Cave? It could've been anywhere else. There are hundreds of abandoned caves and caverns all over this continent."</p><p>        Lup walked out of the kitchen and sat next to him. "If anything, you should be thanking your lucky stars that it is Wave Echo Cave, because it's only about a days ride out. Which means that it'll take at most four days for us to get there, explore the cave from top to bottom, and then get back. Meaning that we might be able to make a slight detour in Hogsbottom to talk to some of the townsfolk there."</p><p>        Angus leaned his head against her shoulder in defeat. "But the week after Mid-Summer is always the busiest time of the year!"</p><p>       "If Elide closes the restaurant for a few days, which she hasn't in years, people will realize just how much they missed it and flock to it as soon as it reopens." Lup put her head on her son's, and they sat there for a while, planning out how many provisions they would need, whether they should go tomorrow or the next day, if they should rent a carriage or just borrow Balan's and eating between bites, the food wasn't heaven-sent but it was enough to fill them up. When they were done planning and eating, Lup got up first, yawning and ready to go to bed, but knowing that she had to clean the kitchen. "Hey kiddo, wanna help me clean the kitchen? You can have the leftover sweets from the festival."</p><p>      "Sure. But no stealing sweets from me this time. I'm going to count them all as soon as I get them." Having said that, Angus picked up a soapy rag and helped his mom clean the kitchen. By the time they finished, they were both extremely tired. Angus went to bed first and Lup stayed up, locking the windows and doors. As she did so, she noticed a figure standing near the front window, he seemed to be floating and the second she saw him, her heart started beating like it was going to pound it's way out of her chest. She tried to shake it off, but she couldn't, the figure seemed to notice her looking at him and as soon as he did, he vanished. Lup thought about telling Angus, tucking this piece of information in her subconscious, but she thought better of it, and just decided to go to sleep. It was late and she was tired, she barely made it up the stairs before she collapsed on her bed asleep.</p><p>      When she woke up the next morning, the figure had disappeared almost completely from her mind. Lup got up and got dressed like normal, but when she was deciding which headscarf to wear that day, her red one was back and untarnished. If anything, it actually looked like it had been mended. Her amateur sewing was redone, the sides were more straight, and it smelled of daisies. As she put it on, she wondered who she could thank for this. She eventually settled on making breakfast for whoever had done it, and leaving it outside. Really for anyone, but she assumed that paying it forwards was the right way to go, since she couldn't really find whoever it was and thank them directly.</p><p>      "Lup. You're up early. And you found your red headscarf. Good for you." Elide's voice was quiet and rough, it was clear she still felt pretty sick, so Lup felt a little bad asking her for time off, but the Raven Queen would have to drag her kicking and screaming to the Eternal Stockade before she let Angus anywhere near that place on his own.</p><p>      "Elide, I have a request." Lup turned to face her boss and grimaced. "Angus's newest mystery has come to a standstill. He needs to visit Wave Echo Cave to look for clues." The small smile that Elide usually wore dropped as she looked at Lup in concern.</p><p>     "Are you positive he needs to go there or that it's even a good idea?" Lup understood Elide's worry completely and nodded.</p><p>     "That's why I'm asking you for time off. It'd start tomorrow and it'd span about four days. Wave Echo Cave is the only solid lead that he has and I'm not letting him go alone."</p><p>     "Lup, you know I trust your judgment, but are you sure that you can handle going back there? I don't want you to push yourself, I'm positive Angus would understand if you're worried about that." Lup smiled softly at Elide.</p><p>     "I can do it. Trust me, I know my limits. And if I know anything about that cave, its unsafe to it's very core and there is no way that I would ever allow Angus to go to that place without me, much less alone." Elide nodded.</p><p>     "Guess I better tell Andy that we'll be closed for the rest of the week. No use in him making the trek all the way here when he could just stay home." Andy leaned through the order window and looked at them both quizzically. </p><p>     "Why are we closing for the rest of the week?"</p><p>     "Lup is taking Angus on a field trip, and I'm still far too sick to cook." As if she was proving her point, Elide sneezed loudly into her handkerchief. "And with that, I think I need another nap. I'll see you all next week." Elide did exactly as she said and went back to her room, looking ready to take a nice long nap. Lup snickered and turned to Andy.</p><p>     "Did you get the seasoning I told you to get?"</p><p>     "I did," Andy plopped a cloth sack on the counter in front of Lup, "I have no idea why you need it though. Since you'll be leaving tomorrow."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If you're wondering why I manage a southern accent over text better than griffin can in a podcast, it's because i'm not forcing or faking it. </p><p>Also, if you've never done a chore/run an errand for a farmer's wife, y'all are missing tf out. Those ladies are nice as hell. My great aunt makes cookies like everytime I visit her.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 4 (Petals to the Metal Chapter Three)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>    The day was unremarkable, Lup had been too busy preparing to go to Wave Echo to create a lunch or dinner special, so even though there were crowds and even more people than yesterday, the workload wasn't too bad. She had sent a letter off to a carriage rental place and rented a carriage for a few days for the trip to Wave Echo Cave. After the lunch rush, Angus came down from the upstairs and there were bags under his eyes. He was stressing himself out with this case, everyone could see it, but he was overly stubborn and wouldn't stop working until he figured it out, he got that honestly, Lup thought as he plunked himself into the seat across from her and next to Andy.</p>
<p>     "Before you ask, no I have not figured anything else out. But, I do think I have another lead about where the missing drow might've worked." Andy ignored Angus and began eating happily. Lup cocked an eyebrow as she took a bite of her stew. "I think the guys I met on the train, Mr. Magnus, Mr. Merle, and Mr. Taako might have something to do with it. They used the same words to describe where they worked as he apparently did and as Killian did. They must all work for the same organization. How is that connected to two nearly forgotten missing people though?" Angus began to eat after he finished talking but he quickly stopped as Andy began coughing loudly. Both Lup and Angus scooted away from Andy as he finished his coughing fit.</p>
<p>     "I think I'm sick." Lup handed Andy a napkin, and he loudly sneezed into it.</p>
<p>     "Yeah no shit kiddo." Andy smiled sheepishly. "You should take the rest of the day off, you'll get someone else sick and you need to rest if you want to be able to work when Angus and I get back." Andy nodded and stood up to get his stuff from the kitchen. "I'll get it." Lup went and got his stuff. When she brought it back to him, Angus had already finished eating and was heading upstairs. "I'll see you next week Andy, take care of yourself." Andy nodded as he left the restaurant and Lup followed him a little bit, just to the door, just to flip the sign to closed. She went back inside and cleaned up where the three of them had eaten and then went upstairs to where Angus was staring at his conspiracy board. "Hey Angs, since Andy is sick, we had to close anyway, how about we get a head start on traveling? We can bring your conspiracy board if it'll make you feel better." Angus looked over at her and nodded, grabbing the bag that he had backed and his conspiracy board. </p>
<p>     "I'll meet you at the carriage." Lup nodded as she picked up the bag that she had re-packed, she had kept it packed for a few years, while they were still settling in, worrying that this would be an unwelcoming or unsafe place for her and Angus, but it had turned out to be amazing so far. She picked up a bag full of food from the kitchen and went to meet Angus by the carriage that they had rented during the earlier parts of the day. It was a small carriage with a singular horse, but it would do for their needs. Lup threw her bags in the covered part of the carriage and jumped into the driver's seat, Angus was also in the back, looking at his conspiracy board and writing something down on a piece of paper. Lup started the horse walking and as soon as they got out of town, she called back to Angus. </p>
<p>     "Are you really getting anywhere with that or would you like to take a break and come look at the view?" They were on a worn trail in the middle of a rolling countryside, it was truly beautiful. There were sporadic bits of forest here and there, but it was mostly just rolling hills and fields full of flowers and tall grass. Angus ventured up to the driver's seat, it was bit enough for the both of them, and sat down next to his mom.</p>
<p>     "Wow. This place is incredible. How much longer until we get to Hogsbottom?" Lup thought about it for a second, she knew that it was about a days ride or around 40 miles to Wave Echo Cave if they didn't go the way that went by Hogsbottom, and if there was a town that was now abandoned that the Redcheek family had sent their daughter to, that would be around 10 or so miles, especially if it was to do business. </p>
<p>     "A little while at least. Not too long though. I've never actually been to Hogsbottom, or I don't think I have."</p>
<p>     "In all of your traveling with caravans, you never visited the extremely small town of Hogsbottom? I almost can't believe it." Lup nudged him good-naturedly.</p>
<p>     "Okay Mr. I Know Everything. I barely remember the towns I visited, I don't think I even kept track of their names. Maybe someone else did." Angus laughed.</p>
<p>     "Your brain is so strange, you can remember how long it will take to get to a town you've never been to, but you can't remember around half of your past. It's almost like something is blocking it."</p>
<p>     "Absolutely not detective boy. We are not going down this path again. I just have a trash memory, nothing weird about that." Angus looked at her for a second, but he dropped it. He knew that she hated it when he pried into her past. "I know you don't have a lot of things to go on, but based off what you know right now, what's the theory for this case?"</p>
<p>     "Some secret agency is looking for extremely powerful objects and erasing the memory of people who fail the missions." Angus shrugged. "It's not much, but it's the only thing that really makes sense. As Fantasy Sherlock Holmes said: "<span class="ILfuVd"><span class="e24Kjd">Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." So, the impossible is that Ms. Deidre and the Redcheek family both forgot their loved ones, so someone must be removing the memory of them. And Andy says that Killian's job wants to make the world a better place, that's was Ms. Deidre's fiance said too, that's also what Mr. Magnus, Mr. Merle, and Mr. Taako said. So, they're connected to Ms. Deidre's missing fiance and it follows that the agency has something to do with it, the question is why and how." </span></span></p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "It sounds like you're reading the plot from one of those bedtime stories you used to love, but they can't be removing the memories with magic, that's way too much for one magic user to do and they'd have to stay concentrated the entire time. It's just not possible." As they spoke, the rolling hills full of flowers and grass, turned into fields full of crops and barns scattered about. Lup pointed to a large barn that was pretty close to the trail. "That, means that we're getting close to Hogsbottom, we'll be there in a few minutes. Do you still want to talk to the locals?"</span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Even though I don't think they'll have any information that's truly important, yes I do still want to speak to the locals." Lup nodded and parked the carriage in a pretty large but empty section of grass. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "You take one half, I'll take the other half?" Lup helped Angus down from the carriage and motioned to the two distinct sections of Hogsbottom. It was a small town, but pretty separated, there was a large road that cut down the middle of the town and no one really seemed to cross it, or even look at it. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      Angus nodded. "We can meet back here in a few minutes. Is that okay?"</span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      Lup smiled at him. "Be safe, and if anything seems like it might be going south, just scream, I have my wand on me. " Lup pulled a skinny, white, metal rod from a pouch hanging on her jeans and twirled it in her fingers. "Talking to strangers is necessary, but you know not to go anywhere with them, right?" Angus rolled his eyes. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Mom come on, I'm the smartest 11 year old in the world. Cut me some slack." Lup ruffled her son's hair and then they parted way, Angus heading to the right side of the road and Lup to the left. On the left side of the road, there was a blacksmith, a dress shop, and a small general store, all run and occupied by orcs and elves. Weird, Lup thought as she walked into the general store, everyone turned to look at her and she smiled awkwardly. The pains of a small town, people immediately know when you're a new-comer. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Uh, hello. My name is Lup Bluejeans, I'm working a missing persons case, and I'd like to talk to a few of you. If that's alright with you?" She didn't really know who she was addressing, but a male orc, two female elves, and a female orc all walked up to her. The male orc spoke first. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "It's mighty nice to meet you ma'am. My name is Zander, I actually own this here shop. We don't get a lot of newcomers, but it's always nice to meet one. What kind of information are you looking for?" Lup sighed internally with relief, the people here weren't jerks, thank goodness. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Yes, do you know anything about the Redcheek family?" A look flashed quickly across Zander's face and Lup couldn't make it out before his friendliness was back. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Well, yes ma'am, I certainly know of them. They don't really do business around these parts, but one of their kids, and I can't for the life of me remember which one, would come around here sometimes, she was a very nice girl, always respectful. I haven't seen her for a few weeks though." Zander looked at the small line starting at the empty cash register and shrugged at Lup. "I'm real sorry I couldn't help you out more, but if you need anything else, these doors are always open." Zander then dashed back to the cash register and the two female elves approached Lup. One of them looked a bit older than the other one, but they were both wearing nice dresses and fancy hats. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">      "Hello dearie, my name is Lena, and this is my sweet daughter Kara, her father's back home working in the fields, do you have kids dearie?" The woman smelled of spring flowers and her daughter smiled demurely and waved when she was introduced but did not speak.</span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "Nice to meet you. I actually do, I have a son, his name is Angus and he's actually helping me out on this case." Lena nodded. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "Neither of us know a lot about the Redcheek family, but what I can tell you is that they barely ever leave their farm, the poor things, all of the family works in their fields, I know I could never do that, bless their hearts, and Ms. Eliza's pie is just fantastic. But that's really all I know, I do wish I could've helped you more, but that's just how it is." She walked off but Kara stayed for a moment and leaned over to speak to Lup. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "I know who you're looking for and when you find her, please give her this and tell her that she still means everything to me." Kara then straightened up and followed after her mother. Lup stood there for a moment, just holding the piece of paper in her hands dumbfounded, until the female orc walked up to her, she was pretty young and very dirty, but she smiled sweetly at Lup when she stuck her hand out. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "I'm Bella. Nice to meet you miss. I used to work for the Redcheek family. They're nice people, they don't really believe most of the stuff that people 'round here claim as gospel, and that's why I was real okay working for them." Lup shook her hand and nodded as she spoke. "They definitely don't believe in the separationist nonsense that most people love." </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "What do you mean, separationist? If you couldn't tell, I'm not from around here." Bella laughed heartily. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "Weren't you wonderin' about the big line between the shops? People 'round here think that keeping orcs and elves separate from humans and halflings is somehow a way to make sure money flows properly and everyone is safe and healthy. It's complete nonsense, but it makes people comfortable so everyone just does it." Bella rolled her eyes and Lup just looked at her. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "What about half-elves and half-orcs?" Bella shook her head.</span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "People like that don't really live 'round here, and if they do, they're kept at the family farm. No one but a die-hard separationist would have a problem with 'em. Why?"</span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "My son, he's a half-elf, is he going to be okay on the human and halfling side?" Bella nodded. </span>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="ILfuVd">
    <span class="e24Kjd">       "You don't have to worry, trust me, the people 'round here, while having some real strange ideas, are decent folks and completely harmless." </span>
  </span>
</p>
<hr/><hr/>
<p>       Angus stepped over to the right side, he noticed that there was a coffee shop, a small general store, a dress store, a clothing store, and a blacksmith, all of which, he noticed were filled with humans and halfings. When he looked over to the left side, he noticed that all of the people on that side were orcs and elves. He pulled his ears into his hat and hoped that no one would notice the flecks of gold in his eyes or the quietness of his steps, he had never had to hide his ancestry before, but he was positive he could do it. He walked into the coffee shop, noticing that it was the most filled shop. When he walked in, a small bell dinged and everyone turned to look at him, he expected this, so he already had his detective's badge out and his pen in his hand.</p>
<p>       "I'm sorry to bother you all, but my name is Angus Bluejeans, I'm a detective working a missing persons case and I'd like to speak to a few of you if that's alright." Most people turned back to their coffee or tea, but two human women, a male halfling, a female halfling, and a human man got up. The two human women came to speak to him first, they didn't seem to be related and they were wearing slightly worn work clothes.</p>
<p>       "Are you looking for the missing Redcheek girl? We heard about that happening, it's so awful." The first woman said, "My name is Marie, this is my wife Elena. Our farm is right next to the Redcheek farm, and to think, we were going to invite all of them over for dinner before this happened."</p>
<p>        The other woman, Elena, put her hand on her wife's shoulder. "We were the first ones to hear about it and the first ones to bring them food. Ever since then we've been praying for them every night. Before she was a farmer, Marie over here was a cleric." Angus nodded politely as they spoke.</p>
<p>        "Do you know if the Redcheek girl would've gone anywhere near Wave Echo Cave?"</p>
<p>        "No, she wouldn't have. We're a very close community and we take our farming very seriously, she wouldn't've ever gone that far away. Unless someone or something took her there." Marie answered, looking behind Angus at a clock on the wall. "We ought to get going now, Elena has a few loaves of bread in the oven that are, if I'm doing my math correctly, just about ready. It was real nice taking to you. You take care now!"</p>
<p>        "Thank you ma'ams!" Angus was quickly writing down what they told him when a male halfling walked up to him. He was wearing cleaner and nicer clothes than the two women before him and his boots didn't have any mud on them. "Oh hello sir."</p>
<p>        "How can a kid as young as you be a detective?" The halfling was shorter than him but still someone managed to look down his nose at him.</p>
<p>        "Well sir, I'm just very observant I guess. Now, do you know anything about the missing girl or where you just going to ask me rude questions about my age?" The halfling in front of him huffed and walked off. Angus's shoulders drooped slightly and then there was a female halfling in front of him, her clothes were clean too, but a lot less nice than the halfling before her.</p>
<p>        "Hi. I'm Alice. I work at the dress shop over there, the girl you're looking for used to come in there all the time, what with all those siblings, she had too. She was really nice, a real model citizen. She was always talking about how when she grew up and the family had someone else doing the jobs she did, that she was going to be a hero and go on adventures, when she stopped coming in, I assumed that's what happened, but she promised to write to me and a good friend of mine, but she didn't, so that's when I got worried. It's just so hard to remember what she looked like or how her voice sounded though. Will you find her? I miss her so much even though there's nothing in my mind to really miss." She started to get that look in her face, the one that Andy, Deidre, and his mother have all worn, trying to remember something that was taken from them.</p>
<p>        "Thank you for your time ma'am. I promise I'll do my very best to find her and bring her back for you. I'm sure she misses you something awful." Alice smiled as she walked away from him, presumably going to her job. Angus wrote down the important parts of what she said and the look on her face as she tried to remember her best friend. When he looked up, a human man was standing in front of him.</p>
<p>        "Bluejeans is a real interesting name and one you don't soon forget. When you walked in, you seemed real familiar and when you said your name, it clicked. You were the world's greatest detective, I used to work in a militia you know, in the Underdark. Until a little half-elf boy named Angus Bluejeans revealed us to be corrupt. Now we weren't hurting nobody and we weren't stealing nothing, we were just helping some friends out and keeping some promises, who cares if we got a little extra coin out it." He was a little bit away from Angus when he started speaking, but as he spoke, he got closer, until he was standing almost directly in front of Angus.</p>
<p>        "I'm sorry for making you lose your job sir, but you and your co-workers were turning a blind eye to murders because the culprits payed you behind the scenes! Now I don't know what your definition of nobody is, but I can completely guarantee that more than a few people got hurt because of your actions!" Angus stood his ground as the man advanced on him, expecting to have to protect himself against a blow, instead the man just ripped his cap off his head and his ears sprang out. Fear flooded through Angus's system as shocked gasps sounded from around the shop, then the scraping of chairs and Angus was running  out of the shop and to the carriage, Lup was already waiting for him there, having talked to everyone that would talk to her. When she saw Angus running she climbed into the driver's seat and when he jumped into the carriage, she started the horse galloping and they sped out of the small town on the dividing road.</p>
<p>        "What happened back there Angus? Are you alright?" Lup slowed the horse back to a trot when they were sufficiently out of the town and Angus sighed with relief.</p>
<p>        "One of the militia members that I got fired in the Underdark moved here and he wasn't very happy to see me." Lup laughed and turn back to steering the carriage. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 5 (Petals to the Metal Chapter Four)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Angus had chosen to take a nap as they traveled to Wave Echo Cave, it was a little bit more than a day's ride and so Lup was looking for a place to spend the night when she saw the almost perfect circle of black glass. Her heart stopped beating in her chest and her breath quickened as she stared at it, not really seeing it, but seeing it. Angus was shaken awake by the sudden and complete stop of the horse, and when he went up to see what was wrong, his head began to throb violently, he saw the circle of black glass but didn't really see it, what he did see was his mom walking towards it, her hands curled into fists as she stared down at the ground. Bits of ash flew past her as she made her way to the edge of the circle. The sight of it made her feel like she had failed, but she couldn't remember how she had failed or what she had failed to stop. Angus was up next to her in a little bit, his notebook was out and he was writing a description of the place like his life depended on it.</p>
<p>   "This used to be a town, this has to be the abandoned mining town next to Wave Echo Cave but what happened to it?" Angus broke the silence first, testing the glass with his foot, it was sturdy and he could stand and walk on it. He began to walk around the perimeter, but Lup stayed where she was, almost like her shock had rooted her to the spot.</p>
<p>   "It was fire magic. An entire town, leveled with pure flame. No one should have this kind of power." Her eyebrows knitted together as she spoke, the tightness in her chest growing until she felt like she could barely breathe, then Angus put his hand on her arm and it was gone. Her head was clear and she could breathe. "What if it was this? What if this was why Deidre's fiance had come here? You said that his organization wanted to make the world safer. Maybe he was trying to stop this, but couldn't." Angus's eyes lit up as his mother spoke, she had a point, Deidre's fiance must've gone to Wave Echo Cave, but spent too much time there and failed to save this town.</p>
<p>   "The agency wanted to cover their tracks, they had to erase the memory of this town and everyone in it that died. The town where Miss Redcheek must've been delivering the ale to. That's why they couldn't remember which town they had sent her to." Angus was furiously writing and Lup was just watching him, trying to get herself from thinking about the tragedy of this town, gone from the memories of the people around it. Lup noticed that there was a path leading directly to Wave Echo Cave, she noticed it because she recognized it from when she had run down it, half-dead and bleeding from so many parts of her body that she couldn't count. She remembered stopping at the edge of a town she could hardly remember and picking up a baby, Angus of course, and cradling him close in her arms as she tore the cape from her back and wrapped him in it. "Mom, are you paying attention?" Angus waved his hand in front of her face and she blinked away the memory and nodded, "I don't think the glass can support the carriage's weight, it's probably best to go around." Lup looked at the carriage and the horse and then at the glass and then nodded. </p>
<p>   "Probably so. Come on, you can finish your nap, it'll be a little while until we get to Wave Echo Cave." Lup got into the driver's seat and Angus climbed up next to her. She started the horse off at a trot and Angus leaned his head on her shoulder.</p>
<p>   "I know it's not a happy memory and that it's hard to remember, but can you please tell me the story of how you got to Wave Echo Cave?" Angus didn't look at her and Lup kept her eyes on the horse, guiding it around the glass, she knew that he wouldn't have asked if the curiosity wasn't eating him alive. </p>
<p>   "I guess now is a good of a time as any. I went to Wave Echo Cave with a guide, a dwarf, one of those Rockseekers, they used to own the cave. I don't care much to remember his name, because he stabbed me in the back, literally, and stole the magical item that I wanted to lock away from me, I used my staff, which I lost in the cave to blast him, with the item, into the most secure vault. I don't know what happened to him, I don't care. I laid there on the ground, not quiet dead, but certainly dying. Then a group of dwarves came by, luckily they had a healer with them, she saved my life and I never got her name and she never learned mine, because once I wasn't directly on death's doorstep, I remembered that I had left you alone, completely alone. I started running, it took me a full day to get to you. Trees sliced up my arms, I tripped over branches and rocks, most of my scars are actually from that journey." Lup stopped to take a breath and Angus remembered being very young and asking his mother why she had all those lines on her body. "I made it to you, finally when the moon was starting to come into the sky. You were crying like crazy and surrounded by a group of onlookers, but none of them touched you. The reason for that was you were sitting in the arms of a dead body. I have no idea who it was and at that point, I really didn't care, I picked you up in my arms, tore off the cloak that I was wearing and wrapped you up in it. Then I started walking. And the rest you know." Angus knew the story pretty clearly, his mother being betrayed by her guide and her mad dash to get to him, but he hadn't known that he was in the arms of a dead body, she had neglected to mention that before, she had also neglected to mention that she was hiding a magical item in the mines, he looked up at his mother, and she looked exhausted, the day was only barely ending but he knew that they wouldn't be able to go through the trail at night time.</p>
<p>   "How about we wait until morning? I'm ready to get some dinner and sleep." Angus faked a yawn to sell his story and his mom chuckled. She brought the horses to a stop and then went in the covered portion of the carriage. She emerged with two bowls of hot soup and two waterskins full of water. "You really did prepare for everything."</p>
<p>   Lup shrugged noncommittally. "A mother's job is to be prepared for everything. Plus, since we didn't serve dinner at the restaurant, these are just what we didn't serve." Angus nodded and began eating. His mother was a lot of things, but she was not wasteful. You ate everything you got and if you didn't, you either composted it or you gave it to someone else.</p>
<p>   Lup yawned and Angus did too a few seconds later. They went to bed immediately after eating dinner. Lup didn't even take off her headscarf, but that was a good thing, because she woke up with a start after a very bad nightmare. She snuck past Angus and made it to the outside of the carriage, she slowly got out and sat on the ground behind it, looking at the stars, until she felt a presence next to her, she assumed it was Angus and didn't turn to check.</p>
<p>   "I'm sorry for waking you up, I thought I was being quiet." She heard a soft chuckle that sounded like it was made of multiple different ones and she slowly turned towards the presence next to her, it was a floating, disembodied, red robe that seemed to be looking at her. Her hand went to her wand immediately.</p>
<p>   "Sorry, that just isn't the greeting I'm used to. I mean no harm, I didn't mean to frighten you." The figure spoke with what sounded like multiple voices, but none of them were hostile, if anything, they sounded a little sad. Lup took her hand off her wand but looked at it quizzically.</p>
<p>   "Who are you?"</p>
<p>   "No one that you know. I'm a friend though. I promise." The figure turned it's head to look at the carriage. "That's a smart kid you've got there. He's just about to crack this mystery." The figure sounded wistful. Lup nodded, she didn't feel threatened by this figure, if anything, she felt comfortable.</p>
<p>   "He sure thinks he is. I just wish he wouldn't work himself so hard. Then again, he got it honestly I guess. Do you have a family?" It seemed so wistful talking about her family, that she wondered if it had a family.</p>
<p>   "I used to. I'm working on getting them back, but it's a process." Lup nodded sympathetically.</p>
<p>   "I understand. I just have Angus here, but that's enough for us. We're happy." She turned to look at the red robe but it wasn't looking at her or the carriage, it was looking at the stars. She followed it's gaze.</p>
<p>   "I'm glad to hear it." When Lup turned to smile at it, maybe even try to see if there was a person inside the robe, but it had vanished. Leaving her with questions that couldn't be answered and a nagging sense that it had been a bad idea for her to speak to it so freely. She brushed herself off, undid her hair-wrap and laid back on the hard carriage floor, putting her arms around Angus and slowly drifting off to sleep.</p>
<p>   The sun rose far too early the next morning and Angus was up far before his mother. He didn't do much though, just got dressed, made sure the horse was fed and watered, and then updated his conspiracy board. He was getting close to cracking this thing, he could feel it in his heart, but he had no idea what he was missing. Well that's not entirely true, he knew what he was missing, but there was no way for him to get it. Not without addressing the nameless agency that could take away memories. As he was staring at his conspiracy board, his mother got up and got dressed, picking a blue headscarf today and tying it in a simple pattern. She made breakfast and set the small plate in front of Angus. He didn't take his eyes off the conspiracy board until she spoke.</p>
<p>   "Angs, it's time for breakfast, you'll have a bunch of time to ponder this mystery on the ride to Wave Echo Cave, but you need a break from staring at it." Angus looked away from it, almost disappointed, but his mother was right. He needed to eat. Their breakfast was small, just a bit of toast and some eggs, Lup didn't have an oven, so she just fried them in her hand with her magic, like she had done when caravans didn't want her to use their kitchen but wanted to see her skills.</p>
<p>   "I hope we find something, anything useful in Wave Echo Cave. This trip has been mildly successful so far, but I really hope we can find something to pull the rest of this mystery together." Angus looked between the trail and his conspiracy board, as if he was trying to will something into existence.</p>
<p>    Lup put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. "We'll find something. We have to." She didn't believe her words, but she hoped he did. For his sake and for hers.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 6 (Petals to the Metal Chapter Five)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Lup rolled her shoulders, it was after lunch when they reached the entrance of Wave Echo Cave and they were the only ones there, there weren't even recent wagon tracks, so she stopped the carriage and got out. Angus was adding the giant circle of black glass to his conspiracy board, so he didn't even notice when she pulled out the things to make them both lunch. It once again, wasn't anything special, but it was done quickly, and Angus jumped a bit when she knocked on the side of the carriage to let him know that the food was ready. </p>
<p>   "It's a pretty big cave, it'll take us a while to explore every part of it, so we might as well eat now, who knows what we'll find in there." Lup said as she handed Angus his plate and sat down on the ground in front of him, he took the plate and sat in front of her.</p>
<p>   "Did you encounter anything with your guide?" She shook her head.</p>
<p>   "The Rockseeker family has some weird connection to this cave, so it kept all the baddies away from us, but since he isn't around this time and it's just us, we're gonna need to be careful, unfortunately." Angus nodded and they ate their food in comfortable silence. Once they were done, Lup cleaned it up and made sure that her wand was completely accessible before going into the mouth of the cave. </p>
<p>   Angus walked next to his mother as they entered the cave, noticing the trail of burn marks leading to the interior of the cave. He hadn't noticed the burn marks on the path, but the path was mostly dirt and shifted often enough to conceal the marks. The burn marks went deep, and he knew that whatever had made those had also turned the old town into glass.</p>
<p>   "Mom, did you see this?" Angus pulled his mom's attention away from the dark corners of the cave and to the trail of burn marks.</p>
<p>   Lup looked down at the burn marks and she adjusted her headscarf uncomfortably. "So that must show where whoever or whatever did this came from." She began to follow the trail, keeping her hand on her wand and her ears open for anything that sounded threatening.</p>
<p>   The cave was really a series of much smaller caves that all connected organically. They walked for a little while until they came into what seemed to be the heart of the mining operation. It was full of magical items that had rusted almost completely over, abandoned mine-carts, abandoned mining equipment, and dust. Lup coughed as she breathed in a lung full of dust. Angus picked apart the room slowly, starting with the piles of magical items.</p>
<p>   "Mom, can you cast detect magic on these items? I know you don't want to burn a spell slot, but I'm sure it'll be worth it."</p>
<p>   "If you're so sure." Lup cast detect magic and found barely any trace of magic on all of the items, Angus's book of interception glowed brighter than all of them. "None of them are anywhere near powerful enough to cause the type of destruction we saw." Angus smiled.</p>
<p>   "It's just as I thought. Whatever did that couldn't have been found or created in this operation. It's far too powerful. It had to have come from somewhere outside of this operation, maybe even outside of this world." Lup shook her head. </p>
<p>   "What? Do you think it came from some sort of other reality? I trust your judgment Angs, but don't you think that's a little farfetched?" Angus waffled with his answer for a moment as he held one of the barely magical items.</p>
<p>   "There isn't any other explanation. No one has this kind of power. It's just not possible." With that, Angus went to pick through the abandoned mine-carts, he didn't find anything worth documenting. So he went to pick through the equipment, nothing important there either, and by the time he was done he was completely covered in dust.</p>
<p>   "You look like you went rolling in a field of dandelions. Come on, lets keep going, maybe the walking will shake some of the dust off your clothes." Lup ruffled his hair good-naturedly  and started walking, he walked quickly after her, writing down most of what he learned in the other cave in his notebook. They walked for a little bit until they came up on a cave, full of glowing mushrooms. Angus immediately bent down to look at them, he even picked on up and when he looked back at his mom, her finger was over her lips in the universal 'be quiet' motion. Angus looked at her oddly, but complied as they walked quickly out of the room, when they were out of it, but still in view of it, Lup picked up a rock and threw it into the room. The second it hit the ground, dozens of mushrooms shot spores at it all at once. "Yeah. Those spores do not taste good, let me tell you, plus they're a little bit poison, at least I think." </p>
<p>    "It's a good thing you remembered that when you did, I was about to ask you if you recognized those mushrooms." Angus laughed a little and Lup did too, but he could see that she was extremely stressed being here.</p>
<p>    "Lets keep going I guess." They continued on, walking beside each other with Angus writing in his notebook and Lup keeping a lookout for anything hostile. They walked down a long and thin section of the mines, comfortable in the silence, both thinking about Wave Echo Cave and how it connected to other things, but on two wildly different thought paths. Lup thought about how she had come to Wave Echo Cave and why she had woken up there with no previous memories except of her son. Angus thought of the two missing people and the families and friends that couldn't remember them and how the black glass circle and Wave Echo Cave fit in to everything. When they reached the end of the cave they were standing over a hunk of broken machinery and in front of a broken down door. Lup looked over to Angus. "So are we going to look through this or are we just going to go through the door. It's clear there was a fight here, but it wasn't the person who made the circle." Angus nodded and looked at the broken machinery.</p>
<p>    "Lets keep going. It's just a bunch of chains." Angus took the lead this time, examining the broken metal door before walking inside, it looked like something had bust it completely open, like the Fantasy Kool-Aid Man. When he walked into the large chamber ahead of him, he was hit with the worst smell he had ever encountered. It smelled like a two dead and decaying bodies. He took a step towards the large pit in the center of the room but Lup put her hand on his shoulder.</p>
<p>    "I'll check it out first. Just in case." He nodded and went to examine the webs on one of the far walls. Lup made her way to the large pit and stopped just short of the edge, she looked down the pit and almost threw up at what was staring up at her. It was two dead bodies alright. One a Drow in wizard robes emblazoned with a spider and the other a giant spider. Lup took a second to collect herself before she called out to Angus. "I think I found the missing Drow wizard." Angus turned to her with a stricken face. </p>
<p>    He shook his head, but she nodded. "This is my least favorite part of my job." He looked down at the ground and grimaced. "At least we know what to tell the families." Lup went over to Angus and wrapped him in her arms, he buried his face in her chest and began to cry. She knew it weighed on him when he found that a missing person was dead and to find two within two days, was heavy on him. She knew that he would try to keep his cool when he told the families, but she also knew that he would find her immediately after or curl up in his bed and cry. She soothed him by whispering softly to him and holding tightly to him. He would be done in just a few moments and she knew it, so as he finished crying, she squatted down to his height and brushed a stray curl away from his forehead.</p>
<p>     "It's gonna be okay Angs. The families will be happy to at least have closure." He nodded and took a deep breath.</p>
<p>     "Thanks momma. I love you."</p>
<p>     "I love you too Angs." She led the way to the next open cave, recognizing it immediately, but she instinctively pushed her panic down. It was the cave where she had been betrayed and stabbed. She hated this fucking cave, but she still walked inside, noticing a lack of skeletons but an excessive amount of dust. The burn mark trail began here. There was another door in front of them that seemed to have been melted open. Angus looked at it and then at her and she nodded. They walked into the room, there were burn marks all around, like something had exploded and that was it. The room was completely featureless except for the burn marks. She ran her hand across one of the burn marks, ash flaked off with her hand and she rubbed it off on her jeans.</p>
<p>     "Mom, this is the room where that dwarf got locked in right? Do you think one of his family members came to find him with someone else, who ended up betraying him?" Lup looked over at her son who was looking at what seemed to be the middle of the explosion.</p>
<p>     "Maybe? I wouldn't put it past anyone. This cave has poisoned people's minds before." Angus nodded as he looked up. He pulled out his notebook and began writing. "Is that your new theory? The wizard was attempting to get whatever was in the cave with some other people and a Rockseeker and they were betrayed for the magical item that the agency wanted to get out of people's hands?" Angus nodded.</p>
<p>      "That's exactly my theory." He put his book up and reached up to adjust his hat, but touched only his hair, remembering he had lost his hat in Hogsbottom. "I wish I could speak with the agency though. I just want to know how they removed the memory of these people, and why." He walked back to the entrance of the cave they were in. Lup was still looking at the burn marks, lost in thought about how someone could create, much less use an item that could cause this much destruction. "Mom, are you ready to get out of here? This place is starting to give me the creeps." Lup shook herself out of her thoughts.</p>
<p>      "Yeah. We can go the short way home to avoid Hogsbottom." They walked out of the cave, passing all the caves that they had been in before, following the burn trail back to the entrance of the main cave, talking just a little bit about how the agency might've come about or what they used to erase all the memories. "You know, I actually think that Elide will be excited to see us when we get home. Even though we both need a shower." Lup joked as they exited the cave completely, stepping into the low sunlight of the afternoon. It was almost dark, but both Lup and Angus had nightvision, so they saw the person standing in front of them with perfect clarity. It was Andy's cousin Killian and she was standing directly in front of them with her crossbow leveled at their faces, well mostly at Lup's face.</p>
<p>       Killian stood tall in front of Lup and Angus, cocking her crossbow as a warning. "I don't want to hurt either of you. But we need to talk. And we need to talk now."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Angus's Mysteries Chapter 7 (Petals to the Metal Chapter 6)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is where things start to get a little more interesting.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Lup stepped a little in front of Angus and put out her hands. "Killian?" Lup was almost about to ask her what she was doing here, and then it clicked. "We found something we weren't supposed to. Didn't we?" Killian nodded.</p>
<p>   "How did you even know to look here? ********* was erased." Instead of a word or words coming out of Killian's mouth, static came out and Lup winced. She hated that sound more than anything else in the world.</p>
<p>   "How do you do it?" Angus stepped out from behind his mother and looked Killian in the eyes. "How do you remove the memories of failed missions?" Killian looked surprised by Angus speaking.</p>
<p>   "What do you mean?"</p>
<p>   "Don't treat me like an idiot ma'am. Please I'm the world's greatest detective."</p>
<p>   Killian shook her head like she couldn't believe it. "You wouldn't understand what I was saying anyway. But you didn't answer my question. How did you know to look here?"</p>
<p>   Angus shared a look with Lup and she nodded at him, which meant 'don't tell her anything until we can trust her'. They had created their signals to intentionally confuse anyone watching them closely. "Wave Echo Cave was full of magical items, the lady that hired me told me that her fiance was looking for a magical item. This was the most logical place to go." Killian seemed to accept that answer.</p>
<p>   "So you found him then?" Angus nodded.</p>
<p>   "Not the way we wanted to, but yes. We found him." He looked down at the ground and Lup put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.</p>
<p>   "How did you know that we were here? Or that anyone was here at all?" Lup hadn't felt any magical presence the entire time she had been here, and if their was a spell around here that set off a trip wire, her detect magic would've showed it very clearly, but she hadn't seen anything like that.</p>
<p>    Killian shook her head. "You wouldn't be able to understand what I was saying." Lup was getting frustrated with that answer.</p>
<p>    "What can you tell us? Anything?"</p>
<p>    "I can tell you one thing. The Director wants to speak to you and she wants to speak to you as soon as possible." Angus began to speak but Lup just patted his shoulder to stop him. His correction would not be helpful right now.</p>
<p>    "I almost feel like we don't have a choice in meeting her." Angus said, looking at Killian's bracer with a look of recognition. </p>
<p>    Killian shrugged. "She's not a bad lady and our organization isn't bad, it's just secretive. For everyone's safety, it has to be." Killian tapped her bracer twice and a large white ball, about the size of a very large carriage came down from the sky and landed almost directly in front of them. A door opened and Killian walked towards it, as she did so, a large balloon inflated at the top of it and it turned into more of a hot air balloon, rather than just a large ball. "Alright guys, get in. I'll explain what this is later, just trust me." Lup looked at Angus and Angus shrugged. So they both got in, buckling their seat belts, and yawning a little bit. It had been a long-ish day. There was nothing to entertain them on the flight there and no windows, well no windows that showed anything, it was all just the dark sky. Lup was too confused by the oddness of everything that had happened that day to even be excited about flying like she had always dreamed about.</p>
<p>    As they flew the second moon, that they had always seen in the sky, got closer and closer to them until they realized that it was no moon. Angus's face lit up immediately. "A secret Moonbase! That's perfect. No one would ever suspect that there was a base on the moon!" Lup smiled over at him and Killian even turned to look at him with fondness. When they landed, an odd headache set into Lup's head, it was familiar to her, it was the same one she felt when she tried to remember Angus's father. Killian was the first out of the air balloon/ball thing. </p>
<p>    "I just have to tell the Director that you guys are here. Don't worry, Avi will help you guys get used to all of this." She motioned to the human man standing next to as Lup and Angus got out.</p>
<p>    "It's always nice to have new recruits. Hi, I'm Avi, I'm the transportation guy." He pulled out a flask and offered it to Lup. "It takes the edge off." Lup shook her head.</p>
<p>    "No thank you. I don't drink in front of my son." Avi nodded, embarrassed, and put the flask up.</p>
<p>    Angus stuck his hand out for Avi to shake and smiled brightly at him. "Hi. My name's Angus Bluejeans. I'm the world's greatest detective!" Avi shook his hand and smiled back at him.</p>
<p>    "Well it's nice to meet you detective." Lup decided that this Avi guy was okay and offered her hand for him to shake as well, he took it and nodded at her.</p>
<p>    "And I'm Lup. It's nice to meet you. Can you tell us how long Killian will take to get back or are we just supposed to find the Director ourselves?" As she said that, Killian returned and motioned for them to follow her. So follow her they did. She led them to an elevator with two guards next to it, she waved to both of them and they both waved back. The elevator opened and a guy in an over the top bard costume was standing in there with a bunch of sheets of paper in his hands.</p>
<p>   "Oh hey Johann. These are some new recruits, mind leading them to inoculation?" Lup didn't know what that meant, but she didn't like it, so she quickly ran over her knowledge of spells and prepared a few, just in case.</p>
<p>   The guy shrugged. "Sure. I guess." Lup and Angus got in the elevator and as soon as the doors closed, Angus turned to Johann and noticing that his hands were full, didn't offer to shake his hand.</p>
<p>   "Hi. I'm Angus Bluejeans. It's nice to meet you." Johann looked down at Angus with a naturally annoyed expression his face and then looked at Lup, then he looked back at Angus and forced a smile.</p>
<p>   "It's nice to meet you too Angus." Angus looked at his papers.</p>
<p>   "You compose music for the violin. It's very complicated music too. How interesting." Johann looked at his papers and then at Angus, slightly shocked.</p>
<p>   "Yeah. I'm like the greatest violinist ever, but since I work here, I'll never actually get to show off my talents." Lup felt bad for this guy, he was only a little figurative years younger than her and he had already signed his life away.</p>
<p>   "That's really unfortunate." Before Johann could respond, the elevator doors opened and they were in a chamber lit from only one side of the room, but Lup couldn't seem to focus on what it was, but it was definitely in a tank. Johann put his papers down on a desk in of the far corners of the room and then came back with two glasses. He tapped a spigot on the side of the tank and handed the glasses to Lup and Angus. "What the fuck is this?" Johann looked at her defeatedly and sighed.</p>
<p>   "Just drink it. You'll understand after you drink it." He walked away from them and sat down at the desk. Angus looked at Lup and she shrugged. When she took a drink of the water, memories flashed through her head like fireworks going off, but all of them were still fuzzy, except for one. What happened to her in the mine and why. She had one of the most powerful magical items in the world and she was trying to hide it away so that it couldn't hurt any more people, but her guide had fallen to the thrall of it and he attempted to kill her, but the poison he had bought was fake. She was on the brink of death when she was rescued and the first words out of her mouth when she opened her eyes was confusing to say the least.</p>
<p>   "I failed." Angus looked over at his mother as she spoke, he didn't get the flashing of memories, but he finally understood the words that Taako and Killian had tried to say to him before they were blocked by the voidfish, because that's what was blocking their memories. The voidfish. His return of memories was a triumphint one because he was right, but as he looked at his mother, he realized that she had relieved the worst day of her life, but somehow it was even worse.</p>
<p>   "Mom? Are you alright?" Lup turned to him and smiled, but he wasn't convinced by it.</p>
<p>   "Of course I am kiddo." She knew that he knew that she was lying, but now was not the time to talk to him, she turned by to Johann. "Where do we go to find the Director?" Johann pointed at the elevator.</p>
<p>   "Just go up and you'll see a few signs that'll point you to the Directors office." Lup nodded her thanks and she left the room, with Angus following close behind her. They made it to the Director's office quickly, taking a little while to notice that on the open space of the moon, which is whatever wasn't occupied by a dome, was full of actual grass. The whole place was really nice. Including the Director's office which had a large portrait of who Lup at first, assumed was the Director's wife or family member, on one wall and a large window to a podium on the opposite one. The Director, who Lup quickly realized was actually the person in the picture, was standing in almost the exact middle of the room. She was a dark-skinned older woman with close cropped white hair and a stern expression. Lup liked her already, especially when she saw her staff, it was bright white and beautifully carved with a blue gem floating at the top of it. The Director nodded when she saw Lup and Angus.</p>
<p>   "Hello, I am the Director of the Bureau of Balance, which is what this organization is called. Our main and only mission here is to find the Grand Relics and destroy them. I'm sure you know what the Grand Relics are." Lup nodded and Angus nodded as well, he didn't actually know, but he could figure it out. "I'm quiet impressed by the two of you. You found out about our organization even though we have gone through great pains to keep it a well-guarded secret. How did you do this?" Lup looked at Angus and he stepped forward, clearly trying to contain his excitement.</p>
<p>    "My name is Angus Bluejeans, and I'm the world's greatest detective! I was hired by two people, probably Magic Brian's fiancée and most likely Noelle Redcheek's family to find their missing loved ones. I had met Mr. Taako, Mr. Magnus, and Mr. Merle a little bit ago while working  another case. The way that they described their work sounded very similar to how Magic Brian's fiancée explained his and how Killian, whose cousin my mom works with, described hers. The search for Noelle led us to Hogsbottom and the search for Magic Brian led us to Wave Echo Cave, which meant that we were going to have to go through Phandalin, even though we didn't know what Phandalin was at that point. I began to connect the dots and I understood that your organization was taking dangerous magical objects out of the world and erasing the minds of people if anything went wrong during the mission." Angus finished speaking and he looked proud of himself and for good reason. The Director looked absurdly impressed for a moment before she regained her composure, and then she shocked both Lup and Angus.</p>
<p>    "Because of your amazing detective skills, I'd like to offer you and your mother a job here at the Bureau of Balance."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If there are any specific interactions you want to see, let me know! I have a few planned, but it's nice to get feedback/requests every now and then. </p>
<p>Also, Lup not drinking (in front of Angus) is based off her growing up around sleazy actors and musicians who probably got drunk as often as they could, and being a young girl around a bunch of drunk adults is not a fun time.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Lunar Interlude: The Test (Petals to the Metal Chapter 7)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Lup looked at the Director in confusion. "What kind of jobs are you talking about?" Lup had expected to be made an offer. A secret organization doesn't just share it's secrets randomly, but she didn't expect for the Director to be so up front about it.</p>
<p>   "Angus would be best as a communications liaison for our reclaimers, but you could have whatever job you liked. You could be a reclaimer and go on missions to recover the relics, you could be a seeker and gather information on the whereabouts of the relics, or you could be a regulator and take down any Bureau members who abuse their knowledge of the relics, which is what Killian is." Lup thought for a second, she wanted to work as close to Angus as possible, just to make sure he's safe, so reclaimer makes the most sense, but after what happened in the cave, she wasn't sure she wanted to be anywhere near any relics for a good long while.</p>
<p>   "I'll be a regulator, and if that doesn't work out, I'll be a reclaimer." The Director nodded, approving her choice.</p>
<p>   "A second choice. I can already see that you're prepared for anything." Lup nodded, oddly proud that the Director was praising her. "There is one thing before you can become full members of the Bureau." Lup sighed, and Angus sighed a bit too, they had both expected the paperwork that would come with. "You need to pass a challenge. Since Angus won't be in combat, he will not be in facing this challenge. Lup," Lup didn't remember telling the Director her name, but she guessed that Angus had done it for her, "do you view yourself as more intelligent, brave, or strong?" The question threw Lup for a little bit, she couldn't guess what was going to happen next, so she was glad that she had mentally prepared the spells beforehand.</p>
<p>   "Brave, I guess?" The Director nodded at her and then hit the bottom of her staff on the ground and Lup passed out.</p>
<p>   When she woke up, she was in an arena and she was facing three ogres, one red, one blue, and one green. They're lined up in a row and none of them have seen Lup yet. Something begins to vibrate at the base of her neck, and when she looks down, she sees a vibrating stone of farspeech. She picks it up and Angus's voice whispers softly to her. </p>
<p>   "Because you're going to become a regulator, you don't have to do anything crazy, you just need to incapacitate the ogres. You can use magic or anything else, and there's an alcove that's I think about 20 to 30 feet away from you which has four different potions, one of them heals, the other harms, one makes you stronger, and the last one will draw the attention of the other ogres." Lup nodded and whispered back, she didn't want to draw the ogre's attention until she was ready.</p>
<p>   "Thanks Angs." She looked around the arena, searching for the alcove that Angus mentioned and as soon as she did, she felt herself slightly relax, until she saw that the ogres were blocking her way.</p>
<p>   "Please be safe momma." Lup barely heard him as she cast the spell Dancing Lights. She created a humanoid figure all the way across the arena and as the ogres all rushed towards it,  she ran towards the alcove. She reached it and climbed up the slightly rocky wall to get to the potions. When she looked back down, she saw the ogres all crowded around the humanoid figure she had created. She thanked her lucky stars and looked for the potions, there was only one of each of them and she sighed, because of course there would only be one of each. She dismissed the humanoid figure and the ogres started looking around wildly, they noticed her and as they ran at her, she threw the strength potion at the smallest one, the blue one, and then threw the attention grabbing potion at the biggest one, the red one, and watched as both the green ogre and blue ogre immediately turned on the other one. The blue one jumped up and slammed its giant fists on top of the red one's head and the red one immediately reels back which makes the blue one punch him directly in the stomach, pushing him back even more as he got knocked over. The red ogre took one look at the other ogres and started running away.</p>
<p>    Lup put down the rest of the potions and pulled out her wand. She took a deep breath and cast Magic Missile. Each dart went to a separate ogres, one hit the red one in the eye, one hit the blue one in the chest, and the last one his the green one in his neck. It didn't seem to phase them very much and since they couldn't see her, they all went after each other again. The red one went to attack the blue one, but instead tripped and hit his head on a rock. The green one also went to attack the blue one and hit him across the face. The blue one retaliated by attempting to hit him back, but the green one dodged. Lup prepared another spell and prayed that it would work. She lifted her wand and cast Firebolt on the green ogre. A plume of flame shot out of her wand and centered only on the green ogre. The red one, not seeing what attacked the green ogre, attacked him. He barrelled into him and knocked him over. The green ogre was shocked from the fire and didn't fight back. The blue ogre ran over to attack the red ogre and Lup, all the way in her alcove heard the crunch of bone as the blue ogre knocked the red ogre off the green ogre. The red ogre laid motionless. He was dead. Lup sighed in relief and looked at her remaining potions. Health and Hurting. She picked up the hurting potion and threw it at the blue ogre, hoping that since it and the other ogre were standing so close together that it would at least slightly splash on the green ogre too. It splashed on the blue one and he reeled back, clearly in pain. As he did, a little bit splashed on the green ogre and the green ogre lashed out, hitting the blue ogre across the face, which caused the blue ogre to run into the wall closest to them, hurting himself in confusion or fear. Lup worried as she realized that they were barely bloodied. There was no way for her to win this. Her worrying caused her to miss the opportunity she had to attack the ogres. The green ogre ran over to where the blue ogre had hurt himself and slammed the smaller ogre into the wall face first. The blue ogre was now extremely bloodied and couldn't fight back because of his panicking.</p>
<p>    "Mom? You're out of potions aren't you?" Lup sighed again as she heard Angus's voice. She couldn't worry about whether or not she could win, because she had to win. He needed her. She climbed down from the alcove and watched the blue ogre break out of the green ogre's grasp and attack him. He hit the other ogre in the stomach and successfully knocked him back. Lup kept to the outer wall as she slowly walked towards them, her next spell needed her to be closer to the targets than her other spells. The green ogre hit the smaller ogre in the face as Lup neared. She could barely see the face of the blue ogre now, he was so bloodied. Lup put away her wand and cracked her knuckles, drawing the attention of the ogres. She rubbed her hands together and cast Burning Hands. A cone of flames shot from her hands, the blue ogre tried to roll away, but he was hit by the cone on his arm and he was knocked out. The green ogre caught the brunt of it and was covered in burns and terrified as Lup retrieved her wand. She ran and jumped on him, catching him by surprise and climbing up his body until she reached his face. She reared back and stabbed him in the eye with her wand. He screamed and she was thrown off of him. She heard her shoulder pop out of place as she hit the ground and she winced. The green ogre screamed again as he advanced on her, but his vision, with one eye gone, didn't seem to be as good as before and he tripped over his fallen comrade, the blue ogre, and the wand was pushed further into his skull. When he hit the ground, he didn't get back up and Lup felt herself start crying in relief. She heard the voice of the Director over the speakers and her shoulders relaxed involuntarily, sending a sharp spike of pain through her.</p>
<p>    "Congratulations Lup. You have completed the test. Welcome to the Bureau of Balance." A pair of doors opened across the arena and Lup could just barely make out Angus's form as he ran to hug her.</p>
<p>    "You did it! You did it!" Angus wiped away the tears on her face and she smiled at him.</p>
<p>    "I did! I did." He smiled back at her and she hugged him tightly. "Did you watch all of that go down?"</p>
<p>    Angus nodded. "I wanted to help, but I didn't know what to say." He thought for a moment. "We're going to have to buy you a new wand." He looked over at the dead ogre with disdain and Lup laughed.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, I guess we will. Do you think they have a wand store on the moon?" Angus laughed as Killian approached them. She offered her hand to help Lup up and smiled at her.</p>
<p>    "What you did back there was cool as hell. Carey and I can't wait to start working with you." Lup took her hand and Killian effortlessly pulled her up. They began walking and Angus walked with them, keeping an eye on everything around them. "But before that, you have to talk to the Director again." Lup nodded.</p>
<p>    "Got it. Is she going to give both of us one of those uniforms or?" Killian chuckled.</p>
<p>    "Not if you don't want them. She'll give you your bracers for sure though."</p>
<p>    "Why do we need the bracers? I thought the voidfish was how you remembered things?" Angus asked, ever curious, but also calculating. </p>
<p>    "Oh, they're for communication. That's really their only purpose. Aside from showing that you're a member of the organization." As they talked, they walked all the way back to the Director's and the Director smiled as they walked in.</p>
<p>    "I don't think I've ever seen a magic user use their wand as a weapon before." Lup shrugged.</p>
<p>    "Sometimes, you gotta do, what you gotta do." The Director cracked a smile and Lup felt accomplished. She tapped her staff twice on the floor of her office, Lup felt her muscles tense up, but nothing happened. Except for her shoulder hurting more.</p>
<p>    Then, a small small, gnome-ish man walked into the room holding two bracers, one small and the other larger, on a silver tray. "Davenport." He said with a smile. Lup smiled back at him and looked up at the Director.</p>
<p>     "That's Davenport. He's my ward. And those are your Bureau of Balance bracers, we can track your location through those and send transportation whenever you need it." Angus took the bracer and looked at it carefully before putting in on, Lup did the same, but neither of them felt different after putting the bracers on. "One of the guards will show you to your room, because its late, and tomorrow, you can begin your training and have a little bit of time to replace your lost wand." Lup nodded and turned to look at the guards, wondering which one would show her where to sleep. She felt like she could sleep for decades. </p>
<p>     "Thank you Madame Director." Angus saw that a guard was already leaving and followed him, his mom following a little bit after. The room that they were led to had a double bed and Lup took only one look at it before she collapsed in it. Angus took a little bit more time, looking around the room before he passed out like his mom. Their day had been a very interesting one.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I like to roll for everything that happens in battle so here are Lup's rolls, in order:</p>
<p>Dancing Lights Effectiveness - 15<br/>Strength Potion - 10 (i counted it because i wanted to, leave me alone)<br/>Aggression Potion - 15<br/>Magic Missile - 18/damage 4 (red ogre), 2 (blue ogre), 3 (green ogre)<br/>Firebolt - 20/damage 2 + 5 (7)<br/>Hurt Potion - 16/damage 9 + 4 (13)<br/>Burning Hands - 15/damage 3 + 5 + 3 (11)<br/>Dex roll (to climb the Green Ogre) - 15<br/>Wand-stab - 19/damage - 6  </p>
<p>And the ogre's rolls:<br/>Blue's attack on Red - 15/damage - 4 + 7 + 4  x 2 (30)<br/>Green's attack on Red - 14/damage - 4 + 8 + 4 (16)<br/>Red's attack on Blue - 6 unsuccessful took 2 damage <br/>Green's attack on Blue - 15/damage - 3 + 2 + 4 (9)<br/>Blue's attack on Green - 12 unsuccessful<br/>Red's attack on Green - 18/ damage - 7 + 1 + 4 (12)<br/>Blue's attack on Red - 17/damage - 1 + 6 + 4 (11)<br/>Green's attack on Blue - 18/damage - 1 + 4 + 4 (9)<br/>Blue's attack on Green - 6 unsuccessful took 2 damage <br/>Green's attack on Blue - 20/damage 1 + 1 + 8 (10)<br/>Blue's attack on Green - 14/damage 3 + 3 + 4 (10)<br/>Green's attack on Blue - 15/damage 2 + 4 + 4 (10)<br/>Green's dex save - 2<br/>Blue's dex save - 18</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Lunar Interlude: Training (Petals to the Metal Chapter 8)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After watching her fight the ogres, Lucretia notices that Lup could use a little training, and Killian agrees.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm so trash at writing physical fights. I've only ever fought my older brother and that's never a fair fight. So I have no experience with any of this. </p>
<p>Also, Lup gets up to level three from the fights and creates her own spell, because I think it's cool.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>   Lup was woken up by a loud knock on the door to her and Angus's room. She went to run her hands through her hair, but touched her headscarf instead. She sighed and got up to answer to door, still in her clothes from the night before. Angus was woken up by the knock too, but he was blear-eyed and tired. When she opened the door, she saw Killian standing there with two other people, a small blue dragonborn and an older-looking dwarf. Lup yawned and smiled tiredly at them. "How can I help you?"</p>
<p>   The small dragonborn spoke first. "Well, you have regulator training today, so I guess the first thing would be get dressed and?" Lup blinked at her and then sighed.</p>
<p>   "Okay. Give me like three minutes." Before they could protest, Lup shut the door and turn to Angus, who was now sitting up in the bed, also in his clothes from the night before. "Hey Angs. Are you ready to go do whatever it is that you're going to be doing?" Angus shrugged and Lup went over to the closet on the left side of their room. It was full of Angus sized clothes, cotton shirts, bluejeans, and scarves. Lup picked out a red cotton shirt, bluejeans, and a black scarf. After she was dressed and her red headscarf was off, she turned to Angus. "Am I doing my headwrap today or are you?"</p>
<p>   Angus pointed to the floor in front of where he was sitting a Lup sat down smiling. "You've gotta train today right?"</p>
<p>   "That's what the lady who's probably still standing outside our door said."</p>
<p>   "Hmm. I guess that means that this shouldn't look super fancy." Lup rolled her eyes. Angus loved making her headscarves look fancy. She on the other hand, made them simple. She didn't do it for the aesthetic, even though that's what she told people. She did it to feel in control of herself. None of her memories had her wearing any kind of head covering, but now, they made her feel safe. Who saw her hair was just one more thing in her life that she now had control over. Lup felt Angus making a series of increasingly complicated twists and knots. "Almost done."</p>
<p>   "What are you doing back there kiddo? Making it look like a rose?" He had actually done that with one of her pink scarves before, it was very beautiful and surprisingly practical, it didn't move for the entire day, and that had been a busy lunch rush.</p>
<p>   "Not this time. It's just a circle pattern. It's a little geometric actually. I really like it." He tied off the final knot and Lup stood up, shaking her head a few times. The pattern didn't shift and she smiled over at her sweet boy.</p>
<p>   "It's perfect Angs. Thank you. You know what to do in the face of authority right?" Angus nodded.</p>
<p>   "Question everything, keep my eyes and ears open, make as little trouble as possible by not getting caught, and use the fact that people underestimate me to take the down if necessary." Lup ruffled his hair. </p>
<p>   "Exactly. I'll see you later. Don't be afraid to come find me if you need anything. I'm never too busy for you." Angus nodded again and Lup went to open the door. The three people were still standing there and she smiled at them. "Alright. Lets get this training thing underway. What kind of training is this?"</p>
<p>   Killian spoke this time. "Mostly physical, but also, we work as a team. So we'll be adding you to the team and figuring out ways to make everything work together. Boyland also got you a spell book so you can work on your casting when we split to train separately for a bit." Lup nodded.</p>
<p>   "Alright, sounds great." Killian nodded and the group walked off. They were frequently stopped by other members of the Bureau who wanted to talk to Boyland or Killian or Carey, who was the dragonborn girl. When they finally reached the training center, Lup cracked her knuckles impatiently. "So, exactly what kind of training are we going to be doing?" Killian looked her up and down and cracked her knuckles as well.</p>
<p>   "How about some sparring?" Killian put her hands up and Lup did the same, a smile slipping on to her face.</p>
<p>   "You're on." They circled each other for a moment, until Lup made the first move, she made to swing at Killian with her left fist, but stopped just short and instead got her across the face with her elbow. Killian retaliated by grabbing Lup's arm before she could pull it away, pulling her towards herself and headbutting her. Lup rubbed her face and stepped back, reeling slightly. She rolled her shoulders, an old habit, and set herself up again. Carey said something to Boyland, and Killian looked over at her for a moment, Lup took the time to land a hit on her jaw. She jumped back before Killian could grab her. Killian nodded at her with respect. They continued fighting for a little bit longer, Lup taking advantage of Killian being distracted and Killian retaliating Lup's hits with her brute strength, by the end of it, Lup had a bloody nose and a couple of bruises, Killian had more bruises and a sparkle in her eyes.</p>
<p>   "You ready to take a break? I'm sure Carey and Boyland are ready to do something other than watch us fight." Lup laughed and nodded. Carey got up from where she was sitting and Boyland did as well. "Alright, you can take a quick magic break, but you're sparring with Carey next, and then Boyland is going to talk to you about the things you did wrong, the things you did right, and some other stuff as well. Then we'll work on group attacks." Lup nodded again and sat down on the bench with a very large spell book in her hands. She flipped through the pages quickly, already knowing some of the beginning spells. She noticed that it was an evocation spell book and smiled. Boyland has apparently been told of her preference for evocation spells. He was a pretty nice guy. When Lup looked up, she noticed that they were doing some group moves, Carey had been thrown, probably by Killian, and Boyland was standing back to back with Killian, all three of whom were fighting holograms of enemies. Lup looked back down at her book, memorizing the spells. There were some pretty interesting ones. After the holograms were defeated, Carey tapped on her shoulder.</p>
<p>   "Alright? You ready to spar?"</p>
<p>   "I'm always ready." Lup put down her book and rolled her shoulders again. It was one of her and Angus's signals, for safety. Angus was nowhere to be seen, but Lup still did it, out of habit. Even though she had never sparred in front of Angus before. She shook her head and got into position with Carey. Who promptly kicked her ass. Lup was used to fighting people much bigger than her, but Carey was around the same size and much faster than her. She got a few good hits in, but Carey had her knocked on her ass by the end of it. She helped her up and Lup thanked her. Then Carey went to talk to Killian and Boyland came up to her. "Yeah I know, that was shit."</p>
<p>   "Well, yeah, but I can tell that you're used to fighting people bigger than you. You did pretty good with Killian. You need to be more confident in your abilities though. If someone takes your magic away, you're screwed."</p>
<p>   "Yeah I guess." Lup sighed.</p>
<p>   "You're good at making opportunity attacks, but you leave yourself open to be retaliated against. An intelligent opponent, like Killian and Carey and most of the people we'll be fighting are going to get you with that, a less than intelligent opponent, like a gerblin or an ogre, won't see that retaliation opening." Boyland pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it. "You have to keep your stance closed, like a spring ready to coil. Get into position." Lup did so and Boyland grabbed her elbow and made it so that her left fist was near her jaw and her elbow was covering her ribs on that side more. "This will make it so that its easier for you to block attacks meant to knock your breath away." He pushed her feet so that her left foot was more in front of her right foot. "This will give you more momentum, since you're right handed." He stepped back and nodded. "Everything else looks good. Remember, don't worry about getting hurt, but think slightly ahead, if you attack with your right hand, your left hand needs to be ready to be in a defensive position. Distribute your weight, make it so that you can easily regain your balance if they go for your forward or back leg." Lup nodded. "When you go to punch, to give you a little extra momentum, you should breathe when you do it, just a small breath, but it should still be there." Lup nodded again.</p>
<p>   "How long have you been doing this kind of thing?" Boyland took a drag of his cigar.</p>
<p>   "I have 413 kids. I haven't been teaching for a long time, but once you train that many people in self defense, it's almost like second nature." Lup blinked at him a few times and then nodded. Killian and Carey, noticing that Boyland was done teaching, came over.</p>
<p>   "So, for group attacks, have you got any specific spells that will increase our fighting prowess?" Lup thought for a moment.</p>
<p>   "Warding Wind could be useful, but only if you're all within 10 feet of me. I did sort of work on a spell of my own, but there's a possibility that it won't work." Carey tilted her head, clearing intrigued. "I call it Burning Form. It allows me to set myself or someone else I touch on fire. The fire doesn't affect the burning figure but it affects everything else that touches it." Killian nodded, excited. "But it might not work! I'd like to test it, on myself, if that's okay with you guys?" They all nodded and Lup took a deep breath before bursting into flame. "Okay, throw something at me!" Boyland grabbed one of his cigars and chucked it into the fire surrounding Lup, it burnt up immediately turning into ash the second it touched the flames. "It works!" Lup dismissed the spell and Carey high-fived her. </p>
<p>   Lup spent the rest of the time, until lunchtime, practicing different spells and sparring with Killian and Carey, she even sparred with Boyland at one point, and he destroyed her with a cigar in his mouth. When it reached lunchtime, Killian suggested that they all go to the canteen together and Lup stopped by her room first, to see if Angus was in there, and he was, reading an old, dusty book.</p>
<p>   "Hey kiddo, what are you reading?" Angus looked up from his book.</p>
<p>   "Oh it's a history of Faerun. Madame Director suggested that I learn as much as I can about history to be helpful!" Lup smiled at him.</p>
<p>   "That's great kiddo. You should take a break to come and eat though. It's lunchtime." Angus nodded and shut his book. He was more than halfway through. "How long have you been reading that?"</p>
<p>   Angus shrugged. "Only a few hours. It's very interesting! Even though it gets pretty boring at times. The author is somebody named Lucretia. I've never heard of her before." Lup nodded.</p>
<p>   "Yeah, neither have I. I wonder where the Director got that book." Angus shrugged and they left to go to the canteen. When they did, Lup spotted Killian immediately, she was easily the tallest person in the canteen. She walked over to her. "Hey guys. This is my son Angus. He also works here." Carey smiled at him and held her hand out.</p>
<p>   "I'm Carey, it's nice to meet you." Angus shook her hand.</p>
<p>   "It's nice to meet you too." Boyland held his hand out next.</p>
<p>   "I'm Boyland. Nice to meet you kiddo. Your mom isn't a half-bad fighter." Angus beamed at him.</p>
<p>   "Well, thank you sir. It's nice to meet you as well." He sat down and Lup sat next to him, noticing that Carey had put two plates in front of them.</p>
<p>   "You didn't have to get lunch for me. And how did you know that I was bringing Angus?"</p>
<p>    Carey winked. "I didn't. That's Killian's second plate. Don't tell her I took it." Carey whispered and Boyland laughed quietly.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Lunar Interlude: Training Part Two (Petals to the Metal 9)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>   After lunch, Angus wanted to continue reading his book, so he went back to the room and Lup went back to the training room with the rest of the regulators. She mostly watched as Killian and Carey and Boyland sparred against holograms and each other, read the spell book, and tested out the spells. She would spar with the holograms too and when it was almost time for the training session to end, Carey turned the holograms that they were fighting off and turned to Lup.</p><p>   "So, how about another round?" Lup rolled her shoulders and smiled.</p><p>   "You're on." Carey smiled back at her, her sharp teeth flashing in the lights of the training dome. They got into place and Lup kept Boyland's advice on her mind, as well as what we had observed from Carey sparring and fighting the holograms. She got a few more hits in than last time but Carey got behind her and threw herself at her back. She hit the old poison scar and Lup dropped to her knees, shaking and breathing heavily. She was trying to catch her breath but she couldn't, her hand went up to her throat and she wasn't in the training room anymore. She was in a dimly lit cave, her hands grasped around a gauntlet. She was panicked and then there was a bloom of pain across her back, she reached back instinctively and her hand came away bloody. She whirled around to her guide as her world began to go fuzzy, she tried to speak but her throat was raw and no sound came out, Cyrus kicked her in the stomach and grabbed the gauntlet as she dropped it. She fell to the ground, hands scrabbling to remove her robe so that she could stop the bleeding as her vision began to black out, and then she was back in the training room, Carey was pacing in front of her apologizing profusely, Boyland had thrown a glass of cold water in her face, and Killian was looking her up and down. "I'm fine, it's fine." She wheezed, her hand dropping from her throat.</p><p>   "Why did your body react like that? I didn't think I hit you too hard." Carey stopped pacing and looked at her with worry.</p><p>   "You hit an old and nasty scar that has some pretty bad memories attached to it." Lup felt Killian raise her shirt a bit to look at the scar, she had never seen it, never wanted to, but she could imagine that it was red and nasty.</p><p>   Killian looked like she had seen a half rotting corpse as she stepped back in front of Lup. "Will it always react like that?"</p><p>   Lup shrugged. "That's the first time it's been hit since I got it, so probably not. It did heal over a mild poison though."</p><p>   "I thought you were a cook."</p><p>   "I was. This happened before I had a job." Boyland looked at her with a small amount of pride, Lup got a sense a deja vû, but ignored it. "It's not a big deal, as long as I can keep people from getting behind me. You guys can do that." Killian nodded.</p><p>   "So it doesn't hurt when you lay on it?" Lup shook her head. "What about if you wear tight clothes?"</p><p>   "I used to carry Angus on my back when he was too small to walk, it was no where near as healed when I did that." Killian nodded, looking minorly impressed.</p><p>   "So it's only if you get hit back there." Lup nodded.</p><p>   "Probably. I might be able to adjust a spell to make it so that I have a sort of shield back there, but that might be a waste of spell slots."</p><p>   "Are you okay to do a little bit more training? I'd like to work with you on stopping attacks from behind." Carey offered.</p><p>   "You don't have to-"</p><p>   Carey shook her head. "I want to." Lup shrugged and stood up.</p><p>   "Alright, lets do it then." They spent a few hours working on Lup's evasion techniques, Lup's ability to sense when someone is coming up behind her, and Lup's ability to force people back in front of her. Lup ended up with more than a few bruises, but Carey didn't land another hit on her scar, though she got pretty close. She might've been holding back, but seeing as Lup's scar covered most of her back, that's not really likely. By the end of it, Carey was almost as tired as Lup was and they were ready to sleep for days.</p><p>   "Same time tomorrow?" Lup laughed.</p><p>   "Only if you get Boyland to bring some of those donuts that I've been hearing so much about." It was Carey's turn to laugh. </p><p>   "You got it." They went their separate ways and when Lup made it back to her and Angus's room, he was pacing back and forth. He was also talking to himself, meaning that he thought there was a mystery afoot.</p><p>   "What's wrong Angus?" He looked over at her and smiled.</p><p>   "I asked the Director where she got the book she asked me to read from, and she said she got it from a friend, but I ran into another kid on the base, he wasn't wearing a bracer, but he knew what was going on, and he asked how I liked the Director's book. He also said that it had taken her over a year to write it." Angus looked down at the book still on his desk. "Why did she lie to me? And why is she trying to keep her name a secret? I tried looking at a few other books in the base library and I found no mention of anyone named Lucretia." Angus sat down heavily at the desk and Lup moved over to the bed.</p><p>   "Maybe she doesn't want to be called Lucretia anyone, you know that people change their names all the time and for different reasons." Angus looked a little bit ashamed but then he looked over at the book.</p><p>   "Then why did she say it was a friend? She seemed to have done background checks on us, she would've known that I wouldn't use an old name against her." Lup thought for a second, that would make sense, seeing as she had known her name without being told it.</p><p>   "Now that I'm not sure, it's really odd. Maybe the kid was lying." Angus shook his head.</p><p>   "He said his name was Lucas Miller, like Miller Elevators." Lup nodded. "What reason would he have for lying? He seemed genuinely surprised to see someone close to his age on the base, so you would think that he would attempt to make a friend instead of lying, especially sense we would make a formidable duo. Kind of like Fantasy Sherlock Holmes and Watson."</p><p>   "I wonder what the Miller kid is doing on this base, and by himself. You would think that his mother would be here as well." Angus shrugged.</p><p>   "No one seemed surprised that he was alone so maybe it's normal?"</p><p>   "Maybe. You might want to talk to the Director about it." Angus nodded.</p><p>   "I probably will." He turned to look at the book again and then sat up straight like he just suddenly remembered something. "How was training? I see you trained hard." Lup laughed and leaned over to ruffle his hair.</p><p>   "It was fine. Learned some maneuvers, learned some spells, and sparred a lot with Carey and Killian. Boyland taught me a good portion of the maneuvers, you should meet him sometime, he's a really nice guy. He has a ton of kids though, I could never." Angus cocked his head to the side and Lup answered his question before he asked. "He's got 413 kids. Don't even ask me how he handles all of them, it's insane to me."</p><p>   Angus shivered a little bit. "I can't imagine that. Especially family dinners." Lup nodded. "Do you think we'll be able to go on missions soon? I'm getting a little restless with just one mystery to solve."</p><p>   Lup began to undo her headwrap as she responded. "I'm sure we will. If you ever get too bored, you can just walk around the base trying to find mysteries. You're going to train with Avi soon, right? You should ask him about mysteries. I'm sure he'll have something to tell you about." Angus shrugged.</p><p>   "Maybe. It's worth a shot anyway. Thanks momma."</p><p>   "No problem sweetheart." Lup got ready for bed, thinking about how she needed to get her shit together if she actually wanted to be good at this job. She needed to stop thinking about random bits of deja vû that left her reeling for moments and encounters that only make a small amount of sense. She missed Neverwinter more than she thought she would, just because the only mystery that surrounded her was who Angus's father was and where he was.</p><p>   The next morning, there was another loud knock on Lup's door, but this time she was ready, she had a white cotton shirt, bluejeans, and a blue headscarf on when she opened the door, but it wasn't any of her team members, in fact, it was Avi.</p><p>   "Oh, good morning Avi. Let me get Angus." Lup closed the door on Avi before he could speak and went to wake up Angus. He was actually already awake and dressed, but had just gotten back in bad to get a little bit more sleep. He opened the door and left with Avi to train. There was another knock on the door and when Lup opened it, it was actually the Director. "Hello Madame Director. Did something happen?"</p><p>   The Director shook her head. "Oh no, nothing happened, I was just going to offer you some tea, you were very exhausted when you joined our organization so you didn't really get to ask any questions. I'm sure you have them, so I'd like to hear them. And if you don't mind, I'd actually like to ask you a few questions as well." Lup was a bit surprised, but she wasn't one to refuse free food, so she just nodded.</p><p>   "That sounds great." The Director smiled lightly.</p><p>   "Lovely. Let's go then." She began walking off, and Lup followed her, wondering if she did this for any of her other workers, or if she was just doing this for her because she had allowed Angus to join. When they reached the Director's office, there were two cups set up on a table and a few of those fancy cucumber sandwiches. Lup sat down across from the Director and took a sandwich. "So, I'll ask the first question. Exactly how old is Angus?"</p><p>   "He's 11. He'll be turning 12 in a few days." The Director nodded. "My turn. Why exactly did you create the Bureau?"</p><p>   The Director thought for a moment. "I was searching for the Grand Relics on my own and I didn't have a lot of luck. I created the Bureau to make the world safe, finally." Lup nodded.</p><p>   "If it's not a sore subject, where is Angus's father? Bluejeans can't be your maiden name."</p><p>    Lup winced internally. "I don't know." The Director looked slightly surprised. "I have a few gaps in my memory, Angus was only around six months old when we moved to Neverwinter, so he doesn't remember his father either."</p><p>    The Director nodded in sympathy. "That's very unfortunate for both of you."</p><p>    Lup shrugged. "We have each other. That's enough for us." She took a sip of her tea. "Are there any organizations that want to stop you in your goal of getting rid of the relics?"</p><p>    "Yes." The Director took a sip of her tea and closed her eyes for a moment. "There is a group called the Red Robes, they didn't stop in their search for power and were the creators of the relics, they had no care for anyone in this world. They have pretty much gone extinct, but some still remain, I'm afraid. If one speaks to you, report it to me immediately, don't respond to them." Lup nodded.</p><p>    "Got it." She was, of course, lying, the red robed figure that had spoken to her was kind and she refused to believe that it had done what the Director was claiming, after all, history is written by the victors and there's no telling what actually happened unless you were there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is gonna be a doozy. Strap in folks. I'm listening to TAZ: Balance again to write this and I hope I do it justice. </p><p>Just some notes:</p><p>Angus is 12. His birthday is the day after The Day of Story and Song, which is the 13th anniversary of the birds arriving on this planet. </p><p>Lucas is about 14, almost 15. He's just a kid, and I pictured him even younger, but this age feels pretty right. </p><p>I'm thinking of having another child appear, an abandoned elven child because like then there would be a human dad, a human child, a half-elf child, an elf mom, and then an elf child, but you guys can let me know I guess.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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